Haruno Secrets
by Koomahana
Summary: Sakura gets sent on a two year mission to Ame to solidify their peace treaty, the down side is that Sakura's family was forbidden to ever enter rain country Territory several generations ago. Now that unwanted persons are searching for her, Sakura must go on this mission with her twin elder sisters, what could wrong?
1. Chapter 1

A Haruno secret makes Sakura got to Ame to strengthen the bond between Ame and Konoha, at the price of her knowledge and her family's name…

…

* * *

...

"Ah Sakura!" Tsunade called when the pink haired girl finally walked through Tsunade's office door, "I was just beginning to wonder when you'd show up!"

"Saishio?" Sakura asked looking hesitant as she approached her teacher's desk, "why are you smiling like a pleased cat?"

"Because I just found a way to get our alliance problem fixed with Ame," Tsunade smiled at Sakura, completely ignoring the jab at her facial expression.

"I'm not about to get married off am I?" Sakura asked, Tsunade arched an eyebrow at her with an amused smile.

"Nothing of the sort," Tsunade replied as she tapped the file that was before her.

"So why was I concerned in a part of the alliance that concerns Ame?" Sakura asked, afraid of the answer.

"Because of your family's _history_ with Ame, I figured you'd be the best bet to fix things over there."

"No." Sakura deadpanned, at Tsunade's bewildered look Sakura continued on determinedly, "Not going to happen Lady Tsunade. No way, did you forget what I told you?" Tsunade sighed "Haruno's are forbidden—"

"Forbidden within the Ame territory for a reason," Tsunade cut Sakura off lazily as she leaned back in her chair "You are the only one capable for this assignment—"

"What about Sawaii?" Sakura asked, her fellow russet haired, blue eyed, medic-nin coming to mind, both of them had trained under lady Tsunade. "She's just as capable as I am!"

"Yes but she doesn't have the history—"

"Then Mei-chan! She's just as good as me!" Sakura tried, her cold, white haired teammate coming to mind

"No history—"

"Then my mother, I'm sure she'd rather—"

"Sakura!" Tsunade snapped, Sakura flinched and fell silent as her teacher glared at her. "Your job over at Ame is to set up a defect-o boarder school. You are to teach Ame's children medical ninjutsu and other techniques of the shinobi way as well as loyalty to Ame; am I clear?"

"Yes lady Tsunade," Sakura replied softly, "Anything else? Will I be working alone on this suicide mission?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes in disapproval at the teenager who wasn't even looking at her.

"You are allowed to make at least two demands of the Amekage, within reason, and of course you're not going alone," Tsunade waved at a nearby wall, out stepped a young man in an Anbu uniform. "This is Yamato; he'll be traveling with you to Ame and build the grounds that is required for your school. Am I understood?" Sakura gave a sigh and a bow

"Your wish is my command," Sakura said softly, Tsunade let out a sigh and leaned forward just enough to get Sakura to lean a little closer to her.

"Don't take this so Hard Sakura-chan," Tsunade whispered gently, "I know you're only fourteen, but you're already excelling a head of your classmates. Please don't take this so hard, you'll come back."

"When? When will this mission end?" Sakura whispered back, ignoring the feeling of being stabbed in the back her head.

"You'll return in two years time," Tsunade said as she leaned back in her chair, Sakura straightened and starred at Tsunade's desk in loathing. "I expect reports every week, as does the Amekage, you'll speak with him when you get to Ame; understand?"

"Yes,"

"Good, Yamato, you are to visit her once a week or you can choose to stay there if you'd like…" Tsunade let the question hang in the air, "If you stay you are to protect Sakura with your life, understand?"

"I'll give you my answer at the end of the week," Yamato's deep voice replied from under his mask, Tsunade nodded her head.

"Good, You'll both be leaving tomorrow at dawn, understand?" Sakura and Yamato nodded and Tsunade waved her hand at them to leave. Once the door closed, Tsunade slumped against her desk with a heavy sigh, "I hope this works…"

…

* * *

...

"Sakura-dear what's wrong?" Sakura's mother asked when Sakura sat their kitchen table with a slump an exhausted groan.

"I'm going on a two year mission," Sakura said, her words dripping with her depression.

"Well that's better than no mission," her father replied softly as he poked her in the arm, Sakura just shook her head against their table top.

"No it's not," Sakura sighed, "My mission's in Ame…" Sakura's mother dropped her dish in the kitchen sink, creating an echoing sound of shattering glass.

"Sakura…" the older woman whispered horrified, "you can't, the law…"

"Does Tsunade know about the law of our family?" Sakura's father asked quickly, Sakura nodded her head; her forehead never leaving the table top.

"She knows and she's still sending me because I'm the only one with history there…" Sakura groaned again as she started thumping her head on the table top softly. "I asked if my teammates could go, but she said they had _no history_, I asked if mother could go and she just snapped at me, she seems to think that I'm the only one…" Sakura's mother and father shared a look before they frowned and turned to their youngest daughter.

"Well in a sense you are…" Sakura's mother started, Sakura lifted her head just enough so her chin rested on the table top instead of her forehead, which now sported an ugly red smug on its center.

"What'd ya mean, mom?" Sakura asked, Sakura's parents shared another glance before her mother shrugged and ignored the question.

"You're older sister's are going to join you," Sakura's mother said gently as she cleaned her hands on a towel.

"Huh? You mean Yuri-nee-chan and Ichigo-nee-chan are coming with me?" Sakura asked her hands on the table top as she pushed herself to a standing position. "When did they get back? I thought they were training with some cousins outside of fire?"

"They got back around noon with some bad news," Sakura's father said as he gestured for Sakura to sit down again, she did so without question. "Someone's out looking for you Sakura-chan, someone who doesn't have good intentions."

"Now go up stairs and meet with your sisters, I'm sure they have more to explain to you." Sakura nodded her head and went up stairs, she found her sisters sleeping peacefully in her bed.

"What are you two idiots doing?" Sakura asked as she batted them with a knocked off pillow gently "You're late."

"Hmm?" the darker haired girl turned slightly, balancing dangerously on the edge of the bed, "Sakura-chan!" the next thing Sakura knew, she was on the ground, her older sister squeezing her tightly.

"C-can't b-breath!" Sakura gasped as she pushed against her sister roughly, "I-Ichi-GO!"

"Hm? Oh! Sorry Imoto," Sakura's sister practically dropped her, Ichigo scratched the back of her strawberry pink head sheepishly. "I haven't seen you in nearly two years, not since you graduated."

"So when you see me after two years decide to kill me?" Sakura asked violently as she rubbed at the place that connected her neck to her chest.

"Yup," Ichigo smiled, her black-green eyes creasing like a mischievous cats; Sakura shook her head

"Are you sure I'm not adopted?" Sakura deadpanned the question and smiled when Ichigo's face fell slightly.

"Unfortunately," sighed a sleepy voice, Sakura looked up into sleepy blurry leaf green eyes and smiled cheerfully at her elder sister.

"It's been too long, Nee-chan," Sakura whispered as she wrapped her arms around Yuri's neck, the older girl sighed and returned the hug gently.

"So what I don't get a hug?" Ichigo asked as she leaned forward and poked her baby sister in the ribs.

"Not if you keep pestering me for one," Sakura snapped with a playful glare, "Besides you tried to kill me."

"Did not!" Ichigo practically cried, "I thought I saw someone lunge at my cute little sister so I tackled her before she could get hurt!"

"That's the worse lie that's ever tumbled from your mouth yet…" Sakura said she unzipped her dress, "Besides you have to tell lady Tsunade that you're both home," Sakura deadpanned as she crawled onto her bed next to Yuri who let out a sleepy sigh and scooted over against the wall.

"Why do I have to do it?" Ichigo asked pouting childishly

"Because if mom or dad go to the Hokage tower about you guys returning and then inform her about you leaving again to go with me to Ame, all hell is going to break lose." Sakura said as she snuggled close to Yuri.

"Why are you going to Ame?" Yuri asked suddenly wide awake.

"I have a mission there for the next two years," Sakura yawned tiredly as she rubbed at her eyes, "I'll be teaching the students there almost everything I know." Yuri and Ichigo starred at each other for a moment before the later nodded her head courtly.

"I'll be back in a moment," Ichigo said softly as she leaned over Sakura's bed and kissed the younger girl's forehead, "You stay and rest." Ichigo ordered with a flick to Yuri's forehead before she jumped out of Sakura's second story bedroom window.

…

* * *

...

Tsunade looked up when she heard someone knock on her door and entered without her permission. A young woman stood in the entrance of her office, a young emerald eyed girl with hot pink hair; a section of it was tied half heartedly on her left side so that it hung over her shoulder. She were a long sleeved crimson dress that had yellow sleeves, upper chest, shoulders and most likely a good portion on her back was yellow two. Her dress hugged her hips and flared down to her angles, where Tsunade could see healed shinobi sandals peeking out from beneath the hem.

"Who are you?" Tsunade asked, not recognizing the young woman.

"My name is Ichigo Haruno," the young woman replied softly "I belief you've met my mother?" she stepped aside to show a middle aged woman with half of her hair tied up into a pony-tail, it was the lightest shade of pink hair that Tsunade had ever seen; the woman also had eyes that looked like melted jade. She was wearing a pink blouse with a red collar that hugged her neck and a crimson colored pensile skirt.

"Aren't you Sakura's mother?" Tsunade asked with a slightly raised eyebrow, the woman's face was blank as she nodded her head courtly. "So I take it she's returned home already? Is she feeling alright?"

"Sakura is just fine, she'll live." Sakura's mother replied softly, almost coldly. "You do not understand what you have just done." Tsunade's eyebrow arched a little higher than before, her head almost tilting to the side in confusion; now they had her undivided attention.

"We're here about her mission to Ame," Ichigo replied calmly, her hand on her hip. Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the younger girl, with her cat green eyes and crimson lips, Tsunade could easily see her as a kunochi who specializes in seduction assassinations.

"What about her mission to Ame?" Tsunade asked, "It's a political mission that Sakura will be playing over there, it's not like I'm sending her off to the front lines in the middle of war or anything."

"That's just it," Ichigo said softly, her eyes lidded as she starred at Tsunade almost coldly; "You did just that."

"Huh?" now Tsunade's head did tilt sideways, her face blank "What are you talking about? Konoha and Ame aren't at war with each other."

"No but Ame isn't kind to the Haruno's either." Sakura's mother nearly snapped, "There's a reason why they have a kill on sight order whenever they see someone wherein _our_ symbol within their territory."

"I was unaware of this order," Tsunade said softly, her face paling as realization of what she had just done.

"That's because Sakura is unaware of the order," The older woman replied softly. "The order was given by the second Amekage, when he saw one of our own clansman leave the corps of the first Amekage." Tsunade's eyes widened slightly "Since then not even one Haruno has lived or even stepped foot within the Ame territory, for the safety of our own kind; we were ordered to never again return home."

"Home…" Tsunade whispered, confusion written on her face "I thought Fire country is the Haruno's home?"

"Not even close…"

…

* * *

...

Sakura woke up that evening to Yuri's soft movement, when Sakura opened her eyes she saw Yuri leaning over her delicately.

"Hmm?" Yuri froze, her expression of horror was so amusing Sakura almost busted with laughter. "What are you doing, Nee-chan?"

"I was trying to go get dinner…" Yuri said softly as she crumbled next to Sakura's legs, Sakura chuckled and moved her legs out of her sister's way.

"Why didn't you wake me? I would like to get some dinner too ya know," Sakura teased as Yuri and herself stood from bed and headed for her door.

"You were too cute to wake up," Yuri smiled gently at Sakura, who blushed at her in response. "I was going to bring you some while you slept, so you'd wake to the smell of food and not me waking you."

"Nee-chan," Sakura mumbled looking away from her sister. Yuri laughed and both sisters entered the hallway, it only took them moments before they started down the stairs.

"That smells so—o good," Sakura heard Ichigo say softly, almost like a purr, suddenly there a slap of a wooden spoon and Ichigo's startled yelp entered Sakura's ears as she and Yuri entered the kitchen

"Ichigo, you should know better by now," Sakura looked her mother who was holding a wooden spoon threatening at her older sister.

"Aw! Mo—om!" Ichigo whined pathetically as she rubbed her sore hand "I've been gone for two _years_!"

"That's no excuse for a lack of manners," Yuri said softly as she glared playfully with her twin and turned for the table were their father sat with an amused smile on his face.

"It's been too long," He whispered softly, Yuri nodded her head and gave the older man a hug and kiss before she sat next to him.

"By fare too long," Ichigo smiled as she sat next to Yuri with a slump and a wink, Sakura smiled at her mother before she took her place beside her father.

"We spoke to Lady Tsunade about your mission," Sakura's attention snapped towards her mother who placed a plate of rice on the table.

"'We'?" Sakura repeated softly, "whose 'we'?"

"Mom and me," Ichigo deadpanned, Sakura's mouth formed an 'o' shape as she nodded her head and returned her attention to her mother.

"How'd it go?" Sakura's father asked as he placed some rice on his plate, ignoring the slap his wife gave his hand.

"We explained a few things and she understood, she's sending some more people with the girl's tomorrow morning." Sakura nodded her head with a relaxed sigh. "How'd your meeting go?" Sakura eyed her father almost wirily, even her sisters turned towards their father with lifted eyebrows.

"The meeting with the head was surprisingly pleasant," at this Sakura froze in her reach for some rice; she looked at her father with a lifted eyebrow.

"It was pleasant?" Sakura repeated softly, her hand returning to her side "Since when has he ever been anything but difficult?" Sakura asked, to which her mother's hand thumped softly against her head.

"We've made a decision about your mission," Sakura's father dead panned towards her as he placed his cup of tea down. "To keep you and your sister's safe; we've decided to do something…" Sakura starred at her father who refused to look at her, "You're going to look like main house members…"

"What?!" Sakura's voice echoed in her house, "Are you insane dad? The main house will kill us!"

"Not if you've got permission," Her father said reaching for Sakura's hand again; even Yuri and Ichigo were speechless. "They even gave permission for you to call yourself heir, but _only_ if your within Ame's boarders; outside of those boarders and you'll get disciplined, but _only_ if you talk about it."

"So don't talk about it outside of Ame's boarders," Sakura's mother warned, "every nation has at least one Haruno heir, even the fire nation; _You_ are the new Haruno heir of Ame's territory," Sakura starred at her mother, her eyes hug and her mouth hanging open.

"But I'm the youngest!" Sakura protested "What about Yuri or Ichigo? Their older! And more experienced with the family jutsu's!"

"Yuri is physically weak, with a bad immune system" Sakura's mother chided softly "You know this; Ichigo is a loose canyon, a free spirit. Would you cage a fire? Or bind the wind?" Sakura opened her mouth but her mother continued "No you wouldn't, because it would do nothing more than back lash and do more harm than good." Sakura looked down at her lap, Yuri looked worriedly between her parents and youngest sister; Ichigo looked proud as all hell, after all her mother just said that she was like fire or wind. She was as natural as mother earth herself, Ichigo was very proud at that moment.

"If Yuri is wind and Ichigo is fire…." Sakura whispered, "What about me? What am I like?" Sakura's mother's face softened and she rubbed her youngest daughter's shoulders gently

"You are like the earth," she said softly, "You are strong when you need to be, cruel when required, Warm when needed and gentile at every other time in your life." Sakura's mother leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her youngest, who fought back tears. "You are calm yet emotional, life and death stand hand in hand within you're very palms, you are strong and weak at the same time. You are like mother earth, strict but kind, loving but wrathful."

"Tomorrow is the day I die," Sakura whispered as tears slipped past her closed lashes, "Once we pass on to Ame land, you will no longer have any children; we will be changed forever…" It was at that moment that the family clutched almost desperately together, their tears falling with soft sobs.

…

* * *

...

The next morning the three Haruno sisters stood at the entrance of the village with their parents. Tsunade starred at the family in shock.

Ichigo was dressed in a white kimono edged in red and was only slightly slutty with its open cuts on its shoulder's, hips and elbows, revealing a snow white yukata; her hot pink hair was half tied over her left shoulder with a red band.

Yuri was dressed in a light red and white Kimono, her pink hair was turned up into a bun tied with a crimson ribbon and her hair was only slightly darker then Sakura's own pink hair.

Sakura was dressed in a white, and blue Kimono, her long cheer blossom pink hair was tied up into a pony tail with a red ribbon as well. The girl's each had a dark red a maroon back pack on their shoulders. Their parents were dressed in black kimonos, as if they were going to a funeral; just behind them stood three other people all dressed in the same black kimonos. The three others were white haired and green eyed, their faces blank as they watched the small family clutched together tightly for their last good-byes.

"Sakura," Tsunade said as the small family parted, Sakura turned and walked over to her teacher.

"Yes Hokage-sama?" Sakura asked her head tilted slightly, Tsunade starred at the younger girl slightly impressed and at the same time, slightly annoyed. Sakura stood with her back perfectly straight, her head level and shoulder's straight.

"I decided that more people will be going with you, just for safety sake, okay?" Tsunade asked reaching forward to brush a stray strand of hair out her apprentice's eyes; Sakura's hand quickly flew to her face and brushed the offending hair back to its rightful place by her eyes. Tsunade starred as Sakura, her hand frozen in the air; Sakura gave her a weak smile before her face fell blank once more and her eyes swiveled to glance at the people standing just behind her parents. Tsunade nodded her head in understanding, although still slightly confused, she continued on with her message.

"I thought you'd be happy to know that Kakashi will be joining you, along with Shikamaru Nara and Neji Hyuuga; are you okay with this?" Sakura nodded her head and glanced at the tree just outside of the walls, Tsunade nodded her head.

"There is a team of Anbu that will fallow you until you reach your destination safely; they are to interfere if you're in danger. Okay?" Sakura nodded her head once more and gave a quick almost regretful smile to Tsunade before she stepped backwards several steps and stood between her two older sisters; her eyes lowered to the ground in respect. Tsunade took a deep breath and walked to the door to give the team and sisters room to walk out on their own.

"Good luck," Tsunade whispered softly, her eyes on Sakura.

Sakura heaved a sigh, immanently Yuri took three steps forward, then Sakura fell into step just behind her, then Ichigo fallowed; the three sisters were exactly five steps away from each other. Kakashi glanced at Tsunade who shook her head and raised her shoulders gently; Kakashi sighed and gestured to Shikamaru and Neji to fallow.

He was a little worried when Sakura didn't respond to Lee's antics; he was even more worried when she completely ignored her friends for the exception of a soft sad smile she flashed towards them when she arrived. He knew the boys had almost imminently caught the change and reacted accordingly, he was also slightly surprised that Tsunade had ordered a team of Anbu to fallow them to Ame.

Kakashi glanced behind himself and saw that the Sakura's mother and father were collapsed on the ground, the former crying her eyes out almost quietly. His eye narrowed when he saw that the three strangers' signed out and without a glance at Tsunade, they walked out of the gate and fallowed them several feet behind. Kakashi looked forward at his team and student.

Sakura's head was bowed as she walked in the middle of her two older sisters; Neji on her left and Shikamaru stood on Sakura's right, both boys' glances towards her were slightly narrowed, and the young Anbu man named Yamato was leading the small pack of mostly children on the road. Kakashi himself stood at the back and fallowed the group with several paces between them.

"Sakura," Shikamaru's voice was low, almost like a whisper; immanently Sakura stopped, her sister's still at her front and back. Both older girls turned with narrow eyes on the Nara heir, who looked at both older girls and took a slight step back from Sakura.

"N-never mind," Shikamaru stammered as he looked away from the Haruno girls, his hand scratching the back of his head nervously.

"If you have nothing to say," the girl standing behind Sakura started her voice low and cold.

"Then don't speak," the girl before Sakura finished just as coldly, Shikamaru tried to suppress a shiver, but Kakashi saw the Nara boy's hand twitch at his side.

"There is no need to be hostile," Neji's voice sounded, Shikamaru looked at him curiously, only to see that he was baring the full brunt of Sakura's older sister's glare's.

"Why don't you say something Sakura?" Neji asked, despite the thick summer heat, Kakashi could almost feel the temperature drop to an almost freezing level. Neji turned to face Sakura completely; his eyes glance quickly at both older sisters before resting on Sakura once more. "Since when were you so quiet?"

"Since when did you care?" the pale haired older girl asked, her voice blank of anything but the frigid cold.

"You are the Hyuuga genius right?" Neji glanced at the girl just behind Sakura; he decided he didn't like that smile of hers. "Last time I heard, you didn't even know Sakura existed."

"Hay now—" Shikamaru started, his foot moving slightly in the dirt of the ground, before he could blink the girl who was before Sakura was suddenly standing inches in front of him.

"And you, your that notorious lazy Nara genius, right?" Shikamaru nodded his head, taking a step backwards. "Then what is it that you wish to say? You have no room to talk." Shikamaru's eyes narrowed at her, a smile twitched on her lips. "You don't even care about Imoto, you're not her teammate; you're just trying to break the silence because it makes you uneasy." The girl turned away from Shikamaru and returned to her place with one last cold remark. "You're too weak to have a place on this escort mission."

"Why don't you try being more respectful to a chunin?" Shikamaru mumbled under his breath, the girl flashed a cold smile at him and continued forward, Sakura and Ichigo fallowing quietly; the later smiled at Shikamaru as she passed.

"Why don't you try being more respectful to _Jonin_?" She asked, Shikamaru's eyes widened but the girl didn't wait for a reply before she continued forwards. Yamato he shared a confused glance with Kakashi before he continued forward, Kakashi let out a sigh and placed his hand Shikamaru's shoulder.

"Don't worry about her words too much, okay?" Kakashi asked as he stepped forward, Neji and Shikamaru fell into step beside him.

"Why are you so calm about this?" Neji asked, Shikamaru nodded his head

"Yeah, even I can tell that something isn't right with Sakura," Shikamaru said "and I don't even know her that well." Kakashi nodded his head and tilted his head back words slightly.

"I suspect that it's all a show," Kakashi whispered gently, his eyes on Sakura's bowed head.

"A show?" Neji repeated before he glanced behind himself, the three people were slightly closer than before.

"What do you mean by that?" Shikamaru asked, he had seen the staring white haired people fallow after them. "You mean for those three?"

"Yeah," Kakashi said softly "Their even closer than before, I suspect that they are the reason why Sakura has done such a three sixty."

"Okay, but who are they?" Neji asked

"I don't know, I've never seen them before." Kakashi answered, "When I first got the team I was permitted to go within their homes and talk to their parents and check out their rooms." Kakashi glanced down at Shikamaru lazily, "I only saw Sakura have one picture of her family, it showed her red haired father, her pink haired mother, these two girls" Kakashi gestured with his chin forward "and Sakura when she was about six years old. It was the only picture in her room."

"Well at least no one can say they're not related," Shikamaru said softly "they've got the same trait as the Hyuuga."

"How so?" Neji asked; almost as if he missed something that could pertain to a blood line anything like his Byakugan.

"I mean that Sakura's eyes are green, her sister's eyes are green and even both of her parents have green eyes." Shikamaru answered "I was thinking that it's a trait in the Haruno family, like how all the Hyuuga have white eyes and no pupils."

"Aa,"

…

* * *

...

That evening the team sat down just on the outside of the boarder of rain and fire, they camped next to a river.

"If you let us travel for another five hours we would have reached the boarder by now." The dark haired girl of Sakura's sister snapped at Kakashi, Kakashi let out another sigh.

"If we did that your sister would most likely feint," Kakashi said softly, he saw the girl's eye brow twitch, "I mean think about it, we've been traveling none stop all day because of you and you're sister; no one has even eaten anything. None of us have rested for even the fraction of a second, besides its almost dark; do you want to travel at night?"

"I don't see what the problem is," the girl replied, her arms crossing under her chest and pushing them lightly up. "You practically just explained to me that we're only resting because you're tired."

"Ichigo-Nee-chan," a soft voice sounded, forcing Kakashi to snap around to look at Sakura; who was starring dull at the ground. The girl before him let out a sigh and nodded her head.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." The girl, Ichigo, walked around Kakashi and wrapped an arm around Sakura "We travel at their pace, I got it, I won't speak out again... Promise." Sakura gave small smile and nodded her head; she turned away and walked back to the other girl who was Sakura's sister.

"Sakura," Kakashi called, he watched as Sakura froze but didn't turn; her sister's both glared at him. "Set your tent up next to mine," Kakashi gave a eye smile towards her "This way I can protect you a little better." Ichigo was not so plight in her dismissive snort, her arm around Sakura's shoulders almost looked protective.

"That is _so_ no going to happen," Ichigo replied rudely, Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the girl,

"Let's go set up our placements," Sakura's other sister said encouragingly, Sakura nodded and moved forward; letting the older girl wrap her arm around her waist gently. Kakashi didn't have a doubt in his mind that if threatened, both girls would immanently kill the fool who endangered their little sister.

Even if that person was an ally…

…

* * *

...

An hour and a half later, Kakashi found himself starring down at the base of the hill at the three sisters sharing a small fire. On the other end of the hill sat the three strangers with their fire, Kakashi's and Yamato's team sat at the top of the hill with a small fire verging on embers.

"Kakashi-sensei," Kakashi turned to see Neji and Shikamaru approaching him, both looking slightly anxious.

"Hmm?" Kakashi turned towards the two young men, "what is it?"

"What do you know about the Haruno family?" Neji asked, Kakashi shrugged his shoulders

"Not much, just Sakura's parents, I've never met her sister's before. They weren't home when I visited." Kakashi answered "They seem nice enough, why? what is it?"

"Neji used his Byakugan…" Shikamaru answered, "just to make sure everyone was okay," he quickly explained, Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him.

"So what'd you see?" Kakashi asked as he turned to the young white eyed man,

"Those three behind us… their apart of the Haruno family." Kakashi starred at Neji for a moment before a heavy sigh escaped his lips, he turned and looked down at the three sisters who sat by the fire; only one was standing and starring up at him.

"I was afraid of that," Kakashi whispered

"Why?" Shikamaru asked, his head tilted to the side

"Because it explains why Sakura was acting so vastly different today," Kakashi answered, "I was hoping that there weren't branch families, like in the Hyuuga, but I guess I was wrong."

"Are you trying to say that Sakura is a branch member?" Neji asked softly, "Like myself?" Kakashi nodded his head

"Yeah, although neither of Sakura's parents had living siblings (they were killed in the war) I thought it strange that both shared the same last name even before they were married."

"Even before they were married…" Shikamaru repeated his face pale and almost green "I'm torn from learning more and forgetting I even heard that."

"It's not that gross," the three men snapped around, only to come face to face with a white haired, green eyed young woman. "Hanako and Chioni are both from separate ends of the Haruno family line." Kakashi starred at the woman in shock, one glance at where her teammates were showed him that there wasn't even a trace of them being there.

"Who are you?" Shikamaru gasped stepping backwards into a defensive stance "and who are you talking about?"

"Those were the names of Sakura's parents, Hanako is her mother and Chioni is her father." Kakashi answered as he placed a hand the Nara' shoulder gently "as for the first question…" Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the two before him.

"Just as your friend had explained," a man answered as he stepped out from behind the strange woman, "We are a part of the Haruno family."

"So you are the reason why Sakura has been acting so different," Kakashi stated more than asked, the man frowned at the ground but nodded his head as if disappointed.

"Yes, it is a slight disappoint that she isn't reacting," the man said softly, just then the woman smiled at Kakashi with an odd glint in her eyes.

"Her not reacting takes all the fun out of everything." The woman said softly, her voice a whisper on the wind; the man next to clucked his tong at her and turned away to look down at the sisters.

"What is Sakura too you?" Neji asked, slightly unnerved by the appearance of two people out of nowhere.

"She is the next heir," the woman's voice was soft, Kakashi, Shikamaru and Neji all starred at her blankly.

"The next heir?" Neji repeated softly, "You mean she is the next heir of the Haruno family?" the woman snorted and looked away as if insulted

"No," a voice whispered behind, the three men turned around quickly to see the oldest member in the white haired group to be standing on the other side of the road starring down at Sakura and her sisters. "That would be me; I am the heir of the Haruno family."

"So why'd this woman just call Sakura the next heir?" Shikamaru asked

"Every land in the five nations has at least one main house family in it, even fire." The man next to the woman explained coldly. "Each house chooses one child to be 'heir' of that region; the only exception is rain country."

"For good reason" The woman growled as she partly glared at the sisters from her place, "That girl is going to be the Haruno Heir of rain country, I pity her bad luck."

"Meaning what?" Neji asked

"Meaning if we ever want to travel though Rain, for whatever reason, we first must visit _her_ and get permission." The man beside the woman replied softly "even the family heir must get to the heir of the region's home to ask permission, although for him it's more of tradition then a requirement."

"The two of us are heirs ourselves, we came to Konoha for our master's birthday then heard the news." The woman said softly, "it's a pity that such a pretty girl has to be sacrificed…" at that Kakashi attention was differed from the man across from to the woman, his hand itching to grab his kunai.

"What do you mean by 'sacrificed'?" Kakashi asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously

"She means that the likely hood of Sakura and her sisters ever returning is slim to none." The man behind the Konoha Nina answered softly "If the Amekage truly wishes for her help, then she might live; but if not…"

"So that's why you gave her permission to become heir," the woman said as if reaching an epiphany. "You're worried that if nothing else, her title will keep her alive a little longer; giving her sisters enough time to escape for help!"

"Something like that," the man mumbled softly,

"Huh?" the woman tilted her head to the side, her shoulder length white hair spilling over one shoulder and exposing the milky skin of the other. "You mean—" the man next to the woman quickly covered her mouth, the man just behind Kakashi glanced at them and even though the look wasn't pointed at him; Kakashi thought his blood would freeze.

"Not another word, Mizuni," the man's voice was soft, but it echoed in the night air; the woman nodded her head eagerly. "I'm going," and then the man had vanished from their sight. Kakashi turned around just in time to see him land just in front of Sakura, who didn't even flinch; she hadn't sat down since he last looked down at her group. Hearing a thwack, Kakashi turned to the two who were still standing before Shikamaru and Neji.

"Did you have to hit me?" the woman, Mizuni, asked glaring woundingly at the man who turned away from her with a huff.

"If you hadn't started to mention it, we would still be sharing a fire with master," the man snapped, he quickly walked over to the fire were Yamato sat watching them quietly.

"How was I to know he still likes her?" Mizuni snapped, at which the man through a piece of charred wood at her head. Sparks flew out from impact and the woman looked like she was two seconds away from charging the man.

"If they ask, I'm blaming you." The man replied, turning his back on the angry woman. "And if master hears you answer, we're both dead."

"Is your 'master' the man who just ditched you two?" Kakashi asked, walking back to the fire off the side of the road. The man nodded his head once Kakashi sat down, "So then what did she mean by him still liking her? And is she referring to Sakura or one of her sisters?"

"He won't answer," the woman snapped as she sat directly across from Kakashi, "Master and Sakura made a promise to each other when they were children, she was to be his wife. The only problem is that the no one else in the family agrees."

"But he's so much older than Sakura," Shikamaru replied softly, looking oddly pale with his tan skin.

"He's only five years older," Mizuni replied, "And it's not unusual for an older man to marry a younger woman, just so long as she isn't significantly younger." Not one of the young men answered or replied to the woman's statement.

"It has not been approved by the elders, so there's no reason to look so green" the man replied gruffly at the green faces of the two young men.

…

* * *

...

The next morning when the team had reached the boarder, the Haruno's walked several feet down from the leaf shinobi. Kakashi, Yamato, Neji and Shikamaru watched as the three grown Haruno's stood in front of Sakura and her sisters. Mizuni stood in front of Ichigo, the two having a glaring contest, the man who stayed with the leaf Nin stood in front of the older sister and the Haruno heir stood in front of Sakura.

The young man was talking but the leaf shinobi couldn't hear what he was saying, after a couple of minutes the sisters nodded their heads and the three people with white hair nodded their own in response. That was when Kakashi saw the three white haired Haruno's move their hands in a sequence of hand signs that he didn't recognize in the least.

"Now awaken, pure spring!" three voices rang out, the leaf Nin's eyes widened and they rushed forward as the three with white hair touched the sister's foreheads gently. Kakashi and his team skidded to a halt as a white light blinded them and a harsh wind blew out from the three sisters.

"Damn it!" Kakashi cursed as he heard a ringing in the air around him, he could even see the Anbu team landed onto the ground and ducked for cover. After a few minutes the wind died down and after a few more the light disappeared as well.

"Sakura!" Kakashi roared as he flew over the stones on the river side, he landed just behind the three 'heirs' and saw them each laying on their sides, Sakura and her sisters were also on their sides. Kakashi quickly went to Sakura and picked her up into his arms, her hair spilling over his arm like a river.

"Sakura," Kakashi shook the younger girl, and then he realized what was so different about her. Kakashi looked up at the older sister next to Sakura and then over his shoulder at Ichigo; then he turned to look more closely at the little girl in his arms. Sakura's hair was as white as snow, the girl on Sakura's right had hair as pale as pearls while Ichigo's hair, on Sakura's left, looked like ash.

"Finally," a voice sounded, Kakashi turned his head towards the man who was Heir of the Haruno house. "Finally she will be accepted," the young man pushed himself up into a sitting position, Kakashi glared at the man.

"What did you do?" the other shinobi stopped just behind the man who was currently receiving Kakashi's coldest glare.

"I made her a main house member," the replied softly, "Now she will be accepted."

"I don't understand, all you did was change these three girl's hair white." Kakashi snapped "what the hell does that have to do with being a main house member?"

"All Haruno's have green eyes," Mizuni answered as she pushed herself up to a sitting position, the Anbu stood a few feet away from her; clearly trying decided on whether or not to lop her head off. "But only the main house carries white hair,"

"In order to make their story believable, we had to give the girl's white hair." the man who sat on the Haruno's heir's left said calmly, "Damn that was exhausting…"

"Why did we get dragged into this again?" Mizuni asked no one in particle

"Because we're the only ones in the family who can do it and _not_ die," the man said, the Haruno Heir gave a sigh and completely ignored the two people on either side of who started squabbling almost immanently. The young man nudged Sakura's foot gently and almost immanently Sakura showed signs of life; she groaned, yawned and opened her eyes sleepily.

"Sakura," Shikamaru and Kakashi breathed, Sakura smiled sleepily up at her teacher, she sat up with Kakashi's help and looked around in a daze.

"What happened…?" Sakura mumbled as she rubbed at her eyes, hearing a chuckle Sakura turned her attention to the young man who sat opposite to herself. Her eyes nearly bugged out her head.

"Master Kori!" Sakura cried as she quickly kneeled before the older boy, her forehead inches from the stone ground she sat on, "Please forgive me for not seeing you right away." Sakura had sounded so flustered that Kakashi didn't know what to do at first; he glanced at the man in front of Sakura and saw him frown at the tiny girl that was Kakashi's student.

"Sakura Haruno," the man said softly as he stood, Sakura flinched before she did as she was told; her eyes on the ground. Sighing the young man took two fingers under Sakura's chin and lifted Sakura's face so he could see her eyes.

"Did you not see this?" he asked gently taking a lock of Sakura's hair between his fingers and touching it to his lips; Kakashi never knew someone's face could get so red.

"You are now heir," he said with a smile and a wink at Sakura, "You are the main house within the borders of Ame," Sakura's breath caught, the memories coming to her mind quickly.

"I will call for you once more," Sakura's face glowed as she smiled at the young man who smiled so gently at her.

"I'll be waiting!" Sakura replied softly, her smile bright and cheerful; Kakashi never realized that Sakura loved this man as well, he had thought that she loved Sasuke; but seeing her blushing so hard now… Kakashi smiled under his mask, even if no one could see it, Kakashi knew that Sakura loved this man a little more then she loved Sasuke; she might not even realize how much more.

"Sakura, Yuri, Ichigo, we have a present for you three girls," the man said gently as he stepped away from Sakura, Sakura's sisters groaned and sat up then quickly stood. The young man smiled at them and held out a crimson package to Sakura, the woman to his right and the man on his left producing the same.

"Make sure to always keep these close, one day you'll be in danger; then these will protect you." Sakura smiled at the man and gently took the gift from him, her sisters doing the same.

…

* * *

...

In the village hidden in the rain, people stopped and watched as three snow white figures walked along their street. No one saw the five dark figures that shadowed them; they only saw the three strange white cloaks, upon one of the figure's backs was a single crimson circle, the other two had white circles on their backs as well; but those were a little harder to see.

Sakura and her sisters were being escorted to the center of the village where the Amekage's tower sat. They had left Kakashi, Shikamaru and Neji at the border with their cousins; knowing that the group would return to Konoha once they had safely crossed the border with escorts to the village hidden in the rain. Ichigo still walked behind Sakura and Yuri stilled walked in front of her, keeping Sakura in the center. Hearing a ruckus ahead the group stopped in their tracks, suddenly a group of children came out of nowhere with a group of adults behind them calling them thieves, with lots of colorful words as well.

"You! Take these three and Go to the tallest tower!" the rain Nin snapped out at another ninja nearby, he quickly took off after the running children; but the adults didn't see where they went and when they saw one of the children had been left behind they quickly ganged up on him.

Sakura moved without thinking

Suddenly Sakura's arms were wrapped around the poor child, her feet moving her up the building and by jumping off a nearby awning, Sakura found herself above the amazed crowed. Sakura grabbed onto a phone pole and spun herself so that she was upside down, quickly Sakura forced her feet under her and she landed atop the pole almost gracefully. Yuri and Ichigo landed gracefully on either side of her on the power lines, scowling at the men below them.

"You should be ashamed of your selves," Sakura's voice rang out as she stood, her hood falling from her head and resting on her back. "You are of the same village, should you not be protecting and helping each other?" silence answered Sakura; her eyes were cold as she starred down ruthlessly upon the group below her; the small boy in her arms shivered before he tightened his hold on her cloak.

"You try not making enough money each week to buy your own family food each night!" one of the men below bellowed out below the sisters. "And then have some snot nosed kid steal the damn thing from ya'!"

"Done did that," Ichigo smirked at the man; "You should still take better care of your children, without children, you have no future." he glared up at her almost hatefully, his face red.

"If you'll excuse us," Sakura said softly, pulling her hood over her face before she started running along the power lines, Yuri before her, Ichigo behind her and the small boy still in her arms.

"Sakura, a head!" Yuri called, turning to look over her shoulder slightly, Sakura nodded her head. They were quickly approaching a face with its tong sticking out at the building next to it.

"Are you ready little one?" Sakura asked as she adjusted her hold on the boy, he shook his head tightened his hands on her cloak. "Don't worry little one, we'll meet again." When the boy looked up at the face of his savior he saw gem colored eyes smiling down at him and soft snow white hair brushed his face, when he blinked he was standing on a pouch overlooking the city. Lights from the various homes around him were shinning bright like stars and the boy found himself mesmerized at the sight. Although it was nothing compared to the warm smile of the girl who saved his life.

…

* * *

...

Sakura turned mid leap and saw the boy starring out over his village in awe, with another leap Sakura was facing forward once more; a smile on her face as she raced passed the ugly face sticking his tong out. Ichigo paused briefly on the landing of the building opposite of the tong's; Sakura and Yuri landed and turned back to Ichigo. Whatever caught her attention had her starring down what would be the throat of the man's face before her.

"Ichigo!" Sakura called out "What is it?" Ichigo flinched and faltered for a moment, still unsure if what it was that made her stop and waste a kunai in the ugly piece of work on the building. "Ichigo!"

"S-sorry!" Ichigo replied as she jumped back up to the power lines, "I-I didn't mean…" Ichigo looked back at the strange face, she was sure she felt someone there.

"Ichigo?" Sakura called her hand out stretched to her older sister

"I-it must have been my Imagination…" Ichigo said turning back to her sister "We were told to go to the tallest tower, right?"

"Yeah it's just a head," Yuri answered gesturing to a huge metallic tower "We should hurry…" Ichigo nodded and they were off again, heading to the tower that was almost glowing with its lights. The sisters reached the almost glowing tower, they found out that 'tallest tower' was a building name; not the actual description. At least the people working in the building were nice enough to escort the sisters to the Amekage's building.

To say they were embarrassed to find out that they had actually passed the Amekage's tower on their way would be an understatement. Apparently the Kage of rain was a big fan of odd looking art and that would explain the freaky face on the side of his building sticking his tong out at the neighbors.

"At least we're not cold anymore," Yuri said trying to make the situation at least slightly better, Ichigo snickered at her sister; they were standing in the foyer, still dripping wet from the rain.

"Yeah right, this place is darker then a cave," Ichigo snickered, "I wonder what the Amekage looks like…"

"He must be pretty unique, like all the others..." Yuri said softly, Sakura tilted her head to the side gently, eyeing her elder sister for an explanation.

"Well think about it Sakura-chan," Ichigo giggled "the Hokage is a drunken, gambling, bipolar old woman who pretends to be young through a jutsu and beats the crap out of almost everyone." Hear Sakura's hand slapped her sister along her head (almost) gently; Ichigo smiled at Sakura as Yuri continued where she left off.

"The Kazekage is a Jinchuuriki who was once a physic mass murder, the Tsukikage is an old man who takes the phrase 'double edge sword' a little too literally, the Iwakage is a little on the unhealthy wired side, the Mizukage is a woman who has violent tendencies whenever anyone talks about her appearance or age."

"So pretty much all the strongest ninja in the various villages are just another way of saying the 'weirdest' ninja in the village right?" Ichigo replied, her hands wrapped behind her head; for that Sakura did hit Ichigo alongside her head and none to gently either. The hit almost echoed in the dark foyer.

"Sakura-chan!" Ichigo whined as she rubbed the side of her head "What'd I do?"

"Lady Tsunade is respectable," Sakura's voice was low and soft "and Naruto is the next Hokage."

"Okay so I retract my statement about Tsunade-sama…" Ichigo replied sulking, Sakura nodded her head, "I'll just reapply it once Naruto becomes Hokage." Ichigo quickly blocked the kick aimed at her head, her smile wide and cheerful.

"Now isn't the time to be practicing," Yuri replied softly, her hands up as if to placate her squabbling sisters "We have company!" Sakura and Ichigo froze and quickly returned to Yuri's side, the three sisters looked as if they were statues when a young man entered the foyer. Once he caught sight of them he froze and starred, as if he were a dear in headlights; when Ichigo turned to look at him, the young man almost jumped out of his skin.

The sisters stood there in the center of the foyer, the young man to their right. Sakura's eyes were down cast, her hood covering her head and observing her face. Ichigo's hood was down and hung limply around her shoulders, Yuri's hood was just barely covering her face.

"C-c-ca-a-ann I-I-I-I h-hel-help y-y-y-y-you?" the man stuttered out looking like he just might run right back out of the foyer, Ichigo's lit up like Christmas tree lights and a smirk split across her lips.

"I know how _you_ can help _me_," Ichigo purred, the man's face paled and Ichigo's laughter echoed in the foyer. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she tried not to collapse to the polished marble floor. Sakura turned her head slightly to glance at the young man; he saw her move and took a step backwards, as if he thought she would kill him. Ichigo's laughter slowed into low uncontrollable giggles and after a moment she got it under control enough just to smile smugly at her sisters.

"We are here for the Amekage," Yuri said softly, her hand outstretched to Sakura's shoulder. "We are the ambassador's of Konoha… the Haruno's..." it took a moment but the man stopped shivering like a startled dear and suddenly glared almost hatefully at them. Ichigo took a step closer to Sakura, as did Yuri, their eyes sharp as they looked around themselves for anyone else who could be potential threats.

"You are in the wrong section," the man snapped coldly, pointing to the door in front of them.

"He-he, look who has a pair now," Ichigo snickered, "and to think just a moment ago he was shaking like a frightened child." The man growled lowly and fingered a kunai as if thinking whether or not to throw it at Ichigo. Sakura took a step forward out of her sister's protective arms; Ichigo and Yuri stiffened and watched their sister like a hawk as she stepped out into the man's view.

"We are not hear for a low class scuffle, we are here to negotiate," Sakura said as she turned to look at the man, the light in the foyer shinning on ice cold, emotionless face. "If you intend to waste our time, then we will simply leave; and _you_ can explain to your Kage why the people he was promised to come were suddenly turned away at his door step."

Then Sakura continued towards the exist, Yuri and Ichigo quickly fallowing after her and just as quickly fell into their placements. They didn't get far before the doors they were facing before opened and a young woman stepped out; the three sisters froze and turned slightly in her direction. The woman had blue hair, some of it was held up into a bun with a white rose holding it up, the woman's eyes lidded and the same beautiful blue that her hair was. The woman wear a black sleeveless turtle neck, the typical shinobi pants and sandals, a Kunai pouch was on her right leg.

"You are the three Haruno's we are expecting?" the woman asked softly, Ichigo nodded her head, eyeing the woman almost wirily. The woman gave a gentle smile and took a half step backwards, her hand out stretched and motioning for them to fallow her. Ichigo took a step but froze when she saw that Sakura hadn't moved, she was starring at the woman from the dark of her hood almost wirily.

"The man won't fallow," the woman said softly, as if she was reassuring the three sisters "if you fallow me I'll take you to our Kage." Sakura took a step towards her and hesitated, frowning; Ichigo let out a sigh and placed her hand on her little sister's shoulder, Yuri quickly did the same. Sakura nodded her head at both of her sisters and continued forward, her sister's quickly taking their places once more. As Ichigo passed the man that was still glaring at them from his bow, Ichigo blew a kiss towards him with a flirting air and disappeared out of his sigh and beyond the door.

"What are your names?" the woman asked as they walked down a hall towards some stairs, the three sisters remained silent; she glanced back at them only to see that the girls had their heads covered again.

"My name's Konan, I'm the Amekage's assistant." Silence answered her, Konan let out a sigh as she took the first few steps of the stairs. These girls weren't going to make her job easy.

"So you all understand your jobs right?" no response, Konan looked back and saw the girl closest to her nod her head gently; an apologetic look on her face.

"We'll reach his offices soon, it's only a few flights up." still silence, the only sound was coming from their feet on the stairs they all climbed. Once they reached another landing, Konan turned towards the door that was there and opened it; holding it open for the three who passed through it. Only the shortest stopped before her, the child's head bowered almost in thought.

"Sakura," the child's voice was so soft and low that Konan almost missed it; the girl ducked out the doorway and stood next to the other girl who was before her. The third, and tallest, girl stopped and lifted her head enough so that Konan could see a smile on the girls' face; she returned it and entered the new room lined with desks and scattered people resembling something akin to headless chickens.

"This is the assignment department," Konan explained softly "We just have to get through to those doors over there," Konan turned to the girls with a challenging smile "You think you can do it?" the two of the girls nodded their heads, the shortest turned to the tallest and tilted her head softly.

"You can," the girl said softly, so when the youngest turned to Konan, she too nodded her head. Konan smiled and disappeared from sight, Yuri and Ichigo soon fallowed after her when the three elder girls landed softly before the door they turned to look back at the youngest; only to see that she wasn't there.

"Slow," a voice above them whispered, the three young women looked up only to see their youngest member standing on the roof, a gentile twist of the corners of her lips. Konan smiled and nodded at the girl, it was smart to use the roof were no one else would be blocking her way.

"Smart," Konan said as the girl released her jutsu on the ceiling, spun and landed on her feet gracefully. The girl's hood had fallen around her shoulders, revealing a bowed pale face crowned with snow white locks; then the girl's hood was back over her face one gentile smile was all Konan could see as the girl straightened.

"You're cuter then I thought, Sakura-san." Konan whispered, the girl lifted her face just enough for Konan to catch emerald orbs. The girl stepped closer to her sisters and the immanently surrounded her protectively. Konan shook her head with a faint smile on her lips before she turned serious once more,

"Through these doors is the Kage of the rain village." The three sisters nodded their heads together and Konan opened the door, the four females walked in and stopped in the center of the office.

The office was unsurely large, just a lot of empty space with steal walls and lots of glass windows stretching almost all around them. There was large catwalk surrounding the walls of the room, before the sisters was a desk full of papers and files. There was no one else in the room, although Sakura thought she had seen someone duck into the shadows when they entered, she didn't feel anyone else in the room.

"Sorry, I thought he'd be here" Konan apologized softly as she approached the desk, "Guess he caught called away…" Konan brushed her fingers across the desk top, before she took up a small note with her name on it. "Aa, that's why…" Ichigo tilted her head at the older woman curiously.

"Well I apologize about that," Konan turned towards the sisters once more "Apparently Amekage-sama was called away on some business, he won't be back for some time." The Yuri nodded her head in understanding, it was then Sakura folded herself up onto the floor, sitting with her knees tucked to one side.

"We'll wait," the younger girl's soft voice just barely reached Konan's ears.

"uh, but he won't be back for several hours—" Konan started, the other two girls sat next to Sakura, one gracefully the other just thumped to the floor; her feet out stretched before her as she let out an impatient sigh.

"We'll wait," the girl who was always walking in front of Sakura nodded with a soft smile "We'll wait here for him."

"But he won't be back until tonight; I can get you guys a better room to wait in if you'd like—" Konan was cut off again, this time by the girl who always walked behind Sakura.

"We came to talk to your 'god'" the girl said almost rudely, "gathering from what you had said, I'm guessing your one of the Angels the villager's keep whispering about right?" Konan blinked at the girl in confusion "That means you can cut the crap, we're here to full fill a mission with your villages children; we don't give a crap about anything else." Konan sighed and dropped her act, she let her eyes drop lazily at the three girls, emotion leaving her face until it was an empty mask.

"You seem to know a lot, about our village" Konan's voice was just as empty as her face was; she tilted her head to the side gently. "How much does Konoha know?" The girl huffed out an almost irritated sounding sigh.

"How should I know? I'm not a leaf Nin," the girl huffed out with crossed arms "Only Sakura is a leaf Nin in this group and she doesn't have a clue as to what the hell we're talking about." Konan eyed the girl in the center of the group, if she didn't know better she'd think the girl was a sleep; the way she leaned against the other girl was almost like a sleepy slump. "Don't fret; I knocked her out before we started this conversation." The girl sitting by Sakura's feet smiled at Konan as if they shared a secret.

"Ichigo," the girl that Sakura was leaning against chided softly, she swiftly turned so that Sakura's head was in her lap. "If she finds out you'll find yourself in the hospital again."

"Relax Yuri, Sakura's temper is nothing compared to the Hokage's." Ichigo remarked lazily, she pulled her hood down and unbuttoned her cloak; gently Ichigo laid the half dried cloak over Sakura. "Besides I was wondering where that team went," Ichigo had ash white hair pulled back into a low pony tail that was half heartedly braided, her wavy bangs framed her face almost playfully.

"The team properly retreated to the out skirts of the village," Yuri answered as she pulled her own hood down. "If they did, then their most likely waiting for us to leave the village so that they can fallow us to the place where we'll be set up." Yuri had cloud white hair, her bangs swept to one side, brushing her left eyebrow as it curled gracefully around her cheeks and framed her face peacefully; the rest of her hair was pulled up into a braided bun.

"You came with another team?" Konan asked, her heart beating a little harder.

"Yeah just a normal four man black ops team," Ichigo said dismissively "I'm a little surprised we lost them so quickly."

"They did not have the same training as us," Yuri replied with an arched eye brow. Konan starred at the girls, she quickly wrote a note, turned it into a butterfly and sent it flying out the window. All she had to now was make sure they weren't in the village and if they were then they would be escorted to their current location; if not then they would be given company just in case.

"I was wondering why there was only three of you, I was just a bout ask you about your fourth member." Konan said as she turned back to the sisters.

"Oh him?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow at Konan "He wasn't supposed to stay with us during the whole of the two year mission, he was just supposed to build the compound and then return to Konoha and report back to Tsunade about the building structure and give her the plans. That's all." Konan arched an eyebrow

"Building a compound would certainly take a long time, especially for just one man." Konan said, Ichigo chuckled at her

"Not if that's what the man specializes in," Ichigo said almost smugly, "Of course we'll have to redo the plumbing completely with stone once he's done, but that shouldn't take too long either." Yuri tilted her head from side to side as if thinking before she nodded her head at Ichigo.

"About a half a day per building, depending on how big he makes them," Yuri said softly, Ichigo nodded her head and flopped on to the other side of Yuri.

"Wake me up when 'god' gets here," Ichigo yawned, to which Yuri pored some thing in her mouth. Causing Ichigo to snap into a sitting potion, coughing and sputtering, Ichigo's hands were at her throat as she tried to cough the dust out of her lungs.

"Yuri!" Ichigo coughed as if she were choking "That was cruel!"

"Don't use me as your damn clock" Yuri deadpanned coldly before she slapped Ichigo on the back harshly "and don't wake Sakura!" Yuri snapped lowly with a glare at Ichigo. The gray haired girl coughed a few more times before she nodded her head and tried to desperately scramble away from her evil older sister.

"I can't wait to tell Sakura-chan on you," Ichigo said hoarsely from her place against the wall, "maybe then she'll like me more then you!"

"Yeah right, with your mouth constantly bubbling out lies that don't make since, she'll never belief you." Yuri said softly, a smug smile twisting her lips as pride lit her soft green eyes.

"You guys are strange," Konan mumbled quietly, she wasn't surprised that the older girls had heard about 'god' and his 'angels' through the villagers. But she was surprised that they knocked out their youngest so she wouldn't hear them talking about it. Konan looked out the window; Ichigo had said that only Sakura was a ninja of Konoha, so why were these two girls so close to Sakura? Were they her guards? Her escorts? They had received the message the previous night about two more Haruno's joining the one that was supposed to become a teacher. But the Hokage didn't know why they had decided to join the girl, just that something happened within their family that required their presence with her at all times. Konan watched the girls in the reflection of the window,

_what were they doing here?_

…

* * *

_**I hope you liked it, I know it's been a while but its defiantly going to take time on this one J**_

_**Reviews are lovely**_

_**Opinions appreciated**_

_**Flames would be nice (just don't cripple me!)**_


	2. Chapter 2

An hour later found the three Haruno girls with closed eyes; Ichigo was leaning against the wall, her head bowed. Ichigo's Kimono was blue with thin golden lines that looked like rivers and white flowers around its edges. Yuri was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall next to Ichigo; her head was bowed gently towards her feet and her cloak was still wrapped snuggly around her body.

Sakura was curled up in Yuri's lap; her eyes closed and wrapped up in two cloaks that kept her nice and warm, her face was still hidden. Konan starred at the girls, she had found the team of Konoha Anbu on the edge of the village; just as Yuri had said. When they were found, they had requested to return to the girl's side, they were currently surrounding the girls protectively and wide awake.

"Ms," a young man approached Konan where she leaned against the glass next to the desk, "When will the Amekage get here?" Konan vaguely recalled the man calling himself Yamato, but she didn't really care.

"I've sent word to him, he should be here soon." Konan said with a smile, she was back to her act and she was mildly surprised that Ichigo hadn't called her on it. Instead the girl had showered her in complements when her escort team arrived though the doors. The man nodded his head his mask bouncing slightly with the movement, he returned to his place next to Ichigo, where he leaned against the wall as well.

Suddenly one of Konan's butterflies flew back to her, she raised her hand and read the note, and she clucked her tong. It was mostly scolding her, for letting the foreign Nin into 'god's office', but it also contained an order for those not involved in the mission of Sakura Haruno to leave the chamber immanently.

"Well I just got a message back from Amekage-sama," Konan said as she pushed herself off the glass and walked towards the group of Leaf Nin.

"What does it say?" the man next to Ichigo asked immanently, preventing Konan from continuing.

"It's scolding me for keeping you guys here for so long, he's not happy you've all been waiting in his office for so long." Konan deadpanned with a pout at the man. "It also says those who are not involved in Haruno-sans' mission is to leave the room and wait in the foyer for the girls."

"That's understandable I suppose," the man nodded his head and the rest of his team headed for the door.

"That includes you," Konan said, her hand on her hip as she lifted an eyebrow at the man. He tilted his head at her, his team pausing in front of the door.

"I am directly involved in this mission," he said, Konan gave him a smile

"No you are to build the compound," Konan shot back "You are not directly involved in Haruno-san's mission involving _our children_." Konan could almost imagine the man narrowing his eyes at her, her smile hadn't faltered one bit and she blinked slowly; testing him to retort back. But the man only pushed himself off the wall and headed towards the door, Konan smiled pleasantly at the group as they left. She nodded her head at the rain nin standing next to the door and he left after the team, she knew he'd make sure they actually did go to the foyer and wait.

As soon as the door shut Konan's smile fell and she turned to look at the girls who were supposed to be sleeping. Only she knew better than that, they were shinobi in a new place, there was no way in hell they were asleep.

"You can quit the act, he'll be here in a moment," Konan said as she turned away and walked back to her previous placement. Ichigo let a smile slip on to her lips as she slid to the floor, Yuri was watching Konan with lidded eyes. Ichigo smiled at her sister and picked up a piece of Sakura's bangs and started to tickle her baby sister's nose with it. It wasn't long before Ichigo received a palm strike to her chin.

"Well you're up," Ichigo mumbled softly, Sakura smiled as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, her emerald eyes sleepy. Sakura stretched and returned Ichigo's cloak as she rubbed at her eyes tiredly, Ichigo smiled as she placed her cloak on her shoulders again.

"Time to play Imoto," Ichigo said softly, Sakura nodded and stood, her hood flipping over her head and hiding her face from view. Yuri stood gracefully, although a little stiffly, then the three sisters stood in the center of the room just before the desk; Sakura still in the center, Yuri on her left with Ichigo on her right.

"Sorry for making you wait so long," a voice sounded in the room, Ichigo and Yuri immanently looked up at the cat walk around them; searching it for any movement.

"But I had business to attend to," a young man stepped out from the shadows next to the open window where Konan leaned against the window.

"I heard you know our little secret," the young man where a black long sleeved turtle neck with black pants, a kunai pouch on his right leg and typical shinobi boots. He had three piercings in his nose and two in his bottom lip and three more piercings in each ear; His hair was orange and wild, spilling over his eyes that were purple with black rings and starring at the three girls calmly.

"We're here on business, not secrets," Sakura's voice said through the silence, her head bowed to the floor. The young man's lips tilted slightly up words, he took a few steps and sat down at his desk.

"Indeed, your Hokage sent one of you here as a peace offering." The man said as he moved some papers across his desk, creating a space for his arms and hands to rest against it without touching the papers. "I believe her words were 'I'll return one of your missing clan's children'."

"My role here in Ame is to create a border school for your children." Sakura said softly her eyes on the man's desk, "I am to teach them Medic ninjutsu and any other basic shinobi knowledge. This way the student can protect themselves when confronted in a fight outside of the school's walls." Sakura raised her eyes to lock eyes with the man behind the desk "I was also told I could make two demands of you, within reason of course."

"Of course," the man said calmly, his head tilting gently for her to continue, Sakura hesitated for a moment; her eyes dropping to the desk once more. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I would like to make my first request that your orphans be sent to the school," Sakura waited calmly for the man's response "and to adopt those who wish to be a part of our family…?"

"Why?" the man asked, his head tilted slightly to the side with a raised eyebrow. "Why do you want the orphans of this village?"

"You can't tend to all of them" Ichigo answered softly, "Might as well make some use out of them while you can." The man's eyes flicked towards Ichigo, who pretended not to notice.

"Besides, some of our clansmen are still within your borders," Yuri piped up helpfully, the man's eyes swiveled towards her, even Sakura turned slightly towards her sister. "In order to solidify our name here we need to find our missing cousins, if they don't learn of their inheritance they could die before they reach twenty."

"How could they die from a lack of knowledge?" Konan asked with a raised eyebrow, the man nodded his head again. He was curious as to what the girls would say.

"Our family has a blood line of sorts," Ichigo said calmly, her eyes locked outside the window, "If one of the Haruno children does not learn of it then they will not train for it, and that could kill them in the long run."

"I see," the man whispered softly, "Your request is reasonable and understandable you have my permission, what is your second request?"

"That the school be placed between the border shared with fire and your village as well as permission that as long as I am within the borders of the compound that I am in charge of everything." Sakura said softly, her eyes flickered to the man's face and saw him stare at her with raised eyebrows. Sakura bit her lip, it was a stretch and she was willing to make adjustments to the demand.

"You're Hokage and I have already discussed the placement of the school," the man said calmly as he leaned back in his chair, Sakura nodded her head, Ichigo tried to suppress a snort.

"You weren't told of this were you?" Konan asked calmly from her place, with a crimson face that no one could see, Sakura shook her head in a negative; the man smiled and nodded his head calmly.

"It's understandable that you wanted to know the location of the school," the man said calmly as he starred at the youngest child who hid her face from his view. "It was decided that it would be placed in a field between the border of fire and rain. It is closer to my village but that is to be expected, the students graduating from your school are to be _my_ ninja." Sakura nodded her head in understanding, she swallowed the lump in her throat; praying that he wouldn't reject the second half of her second request.

"So I'll ignore that part of your little request" the man said, his eyes locked to the face he couldn't see, "As for your request that you be in charge of everything within the borders of the school is also reasonable and acceptable. It is your school after all, the only thing I need you to do is teach the children loyalty to my village." Sakura nodded her head

"Tsunade-sama had ordered me to do so as well," Sakura's voice was barely heard, but the man nodded his head in understanding. He was slightly shocked that the Hokage would give that order as well.

"That's good; I thought she was joking when she said she'd relay the message." He mumbled, "I would also like to make a request of you, if you don't mind?" he saw the smallest member shake her head gently then tilt it towards the side as if waiting for him to continue.

"I would like to see your face, if you please." He saw the two girls on either side of the smallest girl stiffen, their eyes narrowed at him almost in warning. The small girl didn't move at first, as if she was thinking about it; then with a shaky sigh as if she thought of no way around it, he saw the girl move one tiny hand out from beneath the shield of her cloak. Slowly and hesitantly the girl reached up for her hood and pushed it back gently.

Konan starred at the top of the girl's soft snow white hair, looking straight at the head band with a leaf etched on to it. The girl's hair was pulled back gently with the head band, using it to keep it out of her face. Slowly the girl raised her head, her eyes traveling from the floor to the desk, to at last landing and locking with the ringed eyes of the Amekage. Konan felt her breath catch as she starred at the tiny girl who she had only caught a glimpse of before. The girl's lips were cherry blossom pink, her hair still framed her face making it heart shaped and almost angelic looking; she had a wide a forehead and eyes that looked like they were carved from emeralds.

"My name is Sakura Haruno, and I am to be the head of house within your boarders." The girl bowed slightly to the man and Konan respectfully "I hope we can be at peace with each other."

…

Sakura and her sisters were being escorted to the lobby of the building, once they collected the anxious Anbu in the foyer; the team was escorted back out of the village. Almost immanently the leaf shinobi surrounded the Haruno girls as the rain shinobi jumped into the trees. The 3 Rain Nin raced in front of the protective Anbu, leading the way to the site that the Haruno compound was to be built.

Over four hours of running later and the team finally immerged out of the constant rain and came into complete sunshine; they quickly found and stopped at a nearby river for a short rest. Nearby was the largest field that Sakura had ever seen; it was almost as big as the ones in the land of fire that she used to play in. Sakura walked into the field, her hands out stretched to touch the tops of the dry grass and wild flowers.

She didn't know why, but she wished that the Amekage had assigned her this lot of land; it was peaceful and full of life. The energies around her called out in a continuous, harmonious song that calmed her heart cleared her mind. She didn't quite understand why, she didn't know why, but she wanted this land that gave her the peace of mind one gets when the saw innocents standing before them. Sakura opened her eyes and it was like she could see her compound on this lot of land, like it was fated to be built here.

She saw the wide open training sections for the students; she saw the buildings that would stand together strong and proud, she saw the children playing together, she saw groups of people sitting together laughing and talking together, she saw people around her at peace with one another. She saw them train, she saw them marry, she saw them save the life of someone precious, she saw them fight back for their home, she saw them celebrate a new life and she saw them mourn a life lost.

"Sakura-san," a voice called from behind her, Sakura turned and saw Konan starring at her, confusion written across her face. "What are you doing?" Sakura starred at her for a moment, the peace she was in, the vision she was walking through, vanished the moment the older woman called out to her.

"hmm, I wish the Amekage assigned this place for the compound," Sakura whispered as she walked back to Konan, her eyes watching the wind pick up some petals and make them dance in the air around them.

"I like this place, it's peaceful and full of life; and I can see it here…" Konan tilted her head to the side, her eye brows scrunched together in confusion "I can see the compound built here, it's a good place for a compound… a very good place."

"Told you so," Sakura froze and returned her attention back to Konan; there she saw Ichigo and Yuri. Ichigo looked slightly smug. "Told you this was the place, you owe Me." huffing Yuri pulled out some change and handed it over to Ichigo who almost cheered, Sakura lifted an eyebrow and gave her sisters a small smile.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked as she started walking back to them, she hadn't realized that she was starting to stray again, getting lost in the peaceful energy of the field.

"Oh just that you'd feel the energy of this place," Ichigo said smugly as she counted the coins then jingled them close to her ear just to see Yuri glare at her. "I didn't think you'd get lost like that, but then again, this place _is_ full of our chakra."

"What?" Sakura asked, her brows forwarding in confusion, "What are you talking about? That didn't make since…"

"She means that one of the old compounds was here at some point," Yuri explained taking a few steps towards Sakura, "You see that's why you walked off like that; you got caught up in the memories of this place. It's known to happen every now and again, but I doubt anyone's ever been so strongly hit by it as you were."

"Memories?" Sakura asked, "I don't get it," Yuri heaved a sigh

"Listen Sakura, there are times on this earth that the temperature, energy and other things are set up just right; making the surrounding area seem like a-a tape recorder." Yuri explained Sakura nodded her head; she could get that, "Our family is one of the few who happen to have a bad habit of making these energies almost artificially." Sakura's brows forward but she nodded her head, "It's like taking a blank scrawl and writing in it, only our family uses the land around us as our blank scrawl and our memories are the ink, get it?"

"Kind of…" Sakura mumbled "So how'd I get sucked up in it?"

"That's because you are in tune to this place," Ichigo said almost dismissively, "All Haruno's have a special place, a place that is quite literally their 'home'. Mine's in Iwa, even from here I know if someone is trespassing on it and can immanently kick their asses out."

"Mine is in fire country," Yuri said calmly, "it's not so far from here, and in fact I've noticed that most Haruno's special places are actually quite close to each other." Yuri smiled at Sakura gently "I'm not surprised that you've taken to this piece of land, you are after all a direct decedent of the original head of house of Ame."

"So are you two," Sakura mumbled back "So why don't you two have the same reaction as I do?"

"Because we can only completely connect with a piece of land that is closest to our heart," Ichigo said finally looking at her little sister, "This place is closest to the description of _your_ heart."

Konan looked around the field; if this was Sakura's heart then the girl shouldn't be a shinobi. This place was bright and warm, plants that she had never seen before had taken root here. If this was a description of someone's heart, then that person was too gentile to be a shinobi. Konan turned to the Haruno sisters, they each had a place that resembled their heart; Ichigo's was in Iwa, Yuri's wasn't fare in the land of fire and Sakura's was here, in the land of rain.

"Do you want this land?" Konan couldn't help but smile as Sakura practically jumped out of her skin, apparently she hadn't noticed, or bothered with paying attention to, the Amekage who fallowed her into the field. Sakura's left hand held on to Yuri's tightly as the older girl rubbed her back soothingly, Sakura's right hand clutched at the fabric were her heart was. Sakura turned mildly mad but defiantly accusing eyes towards the young man with orange hair who stood behind her with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you mind not scaring me half to death?" Sakura asked ignoring the laughing form of Ichigo who had collapsed on the ground shortly after Sakura's panic attaché. "I like my heart where it's at, thank you very much." The young man smiled at her calmly.

"I merely asked you if you wanted this land," the Amekage stated, Konan could tell the man was fighting not to start laughing at Sakura, her reaction amused him greatly. Sakura froze for a second then beamed up at the Amekage, her face almost glowing as she chimed a cheerful 'yes' and almost choked her sister with her hug. The sisters tumbled to the ground laughing, Ichigo practically jumping on top of them so she could get a hug as well.

Since it was still early morning, the Haruno girls rushed over to the Konoha ninja smiling and cheerful, they gave some plans to the young man who was to build them the compound. He nodded his head, after a moment of examining them and after a second of hand seals, a single story small house was raised from the ground; completely made out of wood.

"Me first!" Ichigo cried out as she rushed in and in seconds sounds came spilling out that were slightly on more frightening side of things; Sakura looked Yuri, who shook her head. "Okay! You can come in now!" Ichigo called out as she leaned out the window, some dirt smeared on her face. "What?" Ichigo asked, tilting her head to the side.

"I'm not sure if it's safe anymore," Sakura whispered to Yuri, who smiled in response. Gently Yuri pushed Sakura forward and when she received a terrified look from her little sister she just smiled and took a step forward, showing Sakura that she wasn't going to be a lone when she entered the house. When Sakura, Yuri, the leaf Nin and three rain Nin all walked in they all saw a large open space.

"Where'd all the racket come from?" some asked, Ichigo practically bounced over to a corner where she lifted up a square peace of flooring.

"It came from under here," Ichigo said smiling, "I made a tunnel that would be the plumbing system, the only thing I need now are the other buildings to be built so they could be connected." Sakura let out a sigh

"Good it sounded like you wrecked the place," Sakura said as she walked to the back wall, there she found two bathrooms on either side of the room, a large gap that looked like it'd be a window taking up a good portion of the back wall. "This place is kind of empty…"

"Well yeah this isn't the dorms or anything, it's just the front were almost everything is started." Yuri explained, "This is the front of the compound, kind of like a gate."

"Oh," Sakura said as she walked back to Yuri who was standing in the center of the small house, "So in other words this place is where everyone would pass through to get to the rest of the house," Yuri nodded her head.

"It's also a good place to rest," Yuri said as she gently sat onto the ground, her ankles tucked to one side, "Besides we need to get some other things in here, like some glass, counters, some medical supplies—"

"Why not just make a list?" Ichigo asked as she sat next to Yuri "That's what you normally do, not tick them off on your fingers like that."

"We also have to get dorms, students and _teachers_" Yuri said, watching amusedly as Ichigo paled at the word 'teachers'. Yuri pulled out some papers from her bag, "these are some plans I've been working on for some time, I haven't exactly chosen which one to use yet…" Sakura smiled as she looked at the different buildings forming integrate designs. The others quickly picked out several designs and started to examine them; catching sight of one that involved a circle, Sakura picked up the design and examined it more closely.

It was painfully plain, a single rectangle at front, connected to a circle just behind it that stretched into five other rectangles spreading around the circle like fingers, there were four circles towards the top of the paper that were almost directly diagonal to four of the buildings and to surround it all was one large circle. Sakura knew that in actually if that wall was built it'd be a good few feet wide and most likely very tall.

"I like this one," Sakura said calmly, she showed her sisters it and was amused at the very bland expressions.

"That's like painfully simple," Ichigo said "That wont confuse the enemy at all…"

"Why would there be enemies? It's a school," Sakura dead panned "besides don't you see this circle here? If that was to be built it would be very tall and just as wide, it won't be easy for them to just barge in." Sakura let Konan take the picture and examined it, "and besides it's not a village, it's a school with dorms, it'll have teachers who'll protect it, and it'll have a clan protecting it as well. How many schools can say that?"

"Okay so what if the enemy personal managed to get in?" Ichigo asked, her eyebrow raised and her arms crossed "How do you manage that one?"

"You said that you can sense whoever is on your special place right?" Sakura asked, "That means you can tell whether or not someone has good intentions, and since I'm bound to be here for a while I'll be able to tell if the person entering the school has good intentions or bad. If they have bad intentions then I can kick them out, like you do." Sakura smiled at Ichigo, who simply grumbled and looked away with a pout on her face.

"Sakura do you recognize that picture?" Yuri asked, Sakura shook her head and with the forwarding of her brows, Yuri continued. "I didn't think you did, you drew that when you were, like, four years old."

"Really?" Sakura asked generally interested, "that's almost a decade ago, so why'd I draw it?"

"You were at the preschool and the teacher had told you to draw your dream home," Yuri explained, "That's what you drew." Sakura smiled and a chuckle spilt past her lips

"Then I guess that's why I liked it!" Sakura chimed cheerfully, Sakura turned to the other shinobi around her who were looking at the various designs, "What are your guy's favorites?" each leaf nin showed a design that had Sakura's smile growing, she had no doubt that the designs were a reflection of their own personalities. "Let's take it to a vote" Sakura chuckled as they each placed their paper together a little further away.

"Amekage-sama, Konan-san," Sakura said as she turned to the two rain shinobi, "What designs did you like?" Konan and the Amekage looked at each other, compared several papers, and then showed Sakura the one she had given to Konan. "Put it with the other's and we'll take a vote" Sakura's voice actually rang with the laughter she hid inside, a smile splitting across her face.

"Okay now everyone close your eyes and count to three, when you open your eyes again I want you to point to the picture that you saw first." Everyone nodded and did as they were told as Sakura flipped the pictures face down and shuffled them, much to the dislike of a few members.

"Okay open your eyes," when everyone opened their eyes they each pointed to a picture that had caught their attention first, "Majority rules," Sakura said as she flipped the paper over, almost immanently a smile split across Sakura's face.

"You have some luck Sakura," Ichigo mumbled as she looked at the picture, it was Sakura's decade old picture.

"Well now that that's decided," Konan started as she passed the other pictures to Yuri, "We still need to pick out teachers and get you, your students." Sakura nodded her head

"I don't suppose you have those files, so can you come by tomorrow?" Sakura asked "this way you have time to assemble the teachers you want here." Konan looked to the young man a few feet away and after a moment she nodded her head.

"I suppose that would be reasonable," Konan agreed with a smile, "we'll get the teachers and start pulling files for you students, we'll leave the rest of day to you."

"Thank you," Sakura smiled at Konan and waved as they walked out of the building and disappeared from sight.

"Sakura-san," Sakura turned at the voice Yamato, the young man approached her with her plans in his hand. "If you want this wall we'll have to determine where the boundaries are." Sakura nodded her head walled out the front door, Yamato right behind her.

"I suppose…" Sakura started, she stretched her sense out and nearly fell into the grip of the land's memories, "hear," Sakura said pointing to the front of the building "This is the front edge," Sakura turned to her right without looking at Yamato and, "It'll stretch this way, one hundred and fifty feet up."

Yamato quickly wrote down the numbers in a pad he stored on his hip and fallowed after Sakura, when they got to the edge of field they kept going. Sakura paused by a tree, her finger tapped against it twice before she moved on. Yamato quickly marked the tree and looked back at the house, he could just barely make it out, that and it was surprisingly at a slight angle from his position. Yamato and Sakura spent the entire day like that, walking around in the forest marking the edge of where the wall would stand.

That evening Sakura stopped, she turned east where the sun was beginning to set and looked back at Yamato. She smiled and turned and pointed in the direction of the house.

"We'll continue tomorrow evening," Sakura said, "we're almost a… fourth…" Sakura's knees buckled and she found herself beheld held up by the strange man whose face she had never seen. "A fourth, we're about a fourth way done…" Yamato sighed as the oddly small fourteen year old girl fell asleep in his arms.

"Great, this is not going to be any small compound…" Yamato sighed as he picked the girl up in his arms and rushed in the direction she had pointed, it didn't take him long to reach the clearing. He wasn't happy to see that he had only cleared about half of it that wide ark, Yamato quickly rushed into the back of the building through someone's pinned up blanket and almost collided with a sword pointed at his face.

"I come in peace," was the first words out of Yamato's mouth as he starred dumbly at the tip of the sword.

"Sakura!" someone called, the blade was removed from his mask, only be placed at his throat, and Sakura was practically ripped from his arms.

"Sakura! Wake up! What happened?" Yuri asked as she shook the girl her arms, Ichigo glared at Yamato hatefully, her sword trembling lightly at his throat.

"Shut up," Sakura mumbled as she snuggled closer to Yuri, "Ichi you're too loud," Sakura grumbled sleepily. Yuri looked sharply up at Yamato, her leaf green eyes narrowed and her face cold.

"What happened?" Yuri's voice was so cold Yamato had to suppress a shiver from going up his back.

"She said we got about a fourth of the way around," Yamato said immanently, Ichigo blinked at him then relaxed with an agitated sigh.

"Just a fourth?" she asked as she turned away from Yamato, her sword on her shoulder, "You only got about a fourth of the way around with the most of the day on your side?" Yuri frowned but picked Sakura up in her arms.

"I'm glad she's still so small," Yuri said to Ichigo as they walked away from Yamato towards their corner of the small empty house.

"Oh? Why's that?" Ichigo asked as she put her sword in her sheath.

"Because if she was any heavier I wouldn't be able to pick her up." the sisters smiled as they laid Sakura down and prepared themselves for bed.

Yamato quickly head over to his team, how apparently completely ignored the girls when he entered. His hand immanently slapped the closest member to him alongside his chocolate colored head.

"Ow," the young man stressed the word, "what was that for?" Yamato sat down next to his damasked team; he reached up and removed his mask, fixing his team with his best glare.

"Why didn't you stop them?" Yamato asked

"Relax captain, it was just a prank" the boy he slapped said from his seat next to him, although he leaned slightly away from Yamato. "The girls wanted to scare you for keeping their sister from them for so long, they were worried."

"And the sword wasn't real," the girl in the team stated calmly

"It looked very real to me," Yamato growled, pointing his glare fully on the woman. She didn't even twitch properly because she wasn't looking at him; Yamato heaved a sigh and relaxed in his seat. His team immanently let out a sigh of relief. "We'll be staying here tonight,"

…

"Pein-sama," Konan whispered once she and her partner returned to the tower were they met the Haruno girls. "Are you going to put a few members into that school?" Pein looked back at Konan as he through on his black cloak with the red and white clouds on it, Konan was already wearing her own.

"Of course, those girls caught my curiosity."

"Are they going to use henge?" Konan asked as she brought some files over to Pein's desk

"Yes, in order to not get recognized by the two who have no loyalties, they will need to disguise themselves." Pein flipped through the files of the various academy teachers', pulling out a few for consideration and setting them aside.

"How many do you want within the compound?"

"At least two or three…"

"Kay, then I've got them hear," Konan gave the three files over to Pein; he arched an eye brow at Konan as he starred at the three faces starring back at him. "They could teach the students _and_ be of some use to us."

"If they have ill intentions Sakura-san will know and not permit them passage." Pein said as looked at the pictures "Sasori and Deidara might be a little too much, as for Itachi… is he even any good around kids?"

"He had his little brother eating out of his palm for eight years before he killed off the clan." Konan replied softly "and these three are better than the others. Zetsu will properly eat a few, Kakuso hates children with a passion, Kisame is too terrifying, even the kids in this village run from him and Hidan is more likely to scarifies a few of them so he's defiantly out." Pein nodded his head in agreement, spoken in that order no one would question the three pictures Konan placed in front of him.

"What about Tobi?"

"Tobi is bound to hurt a few and piss-off everyone else," Konan said bluntly, "Besides I doubt he'll actually pass Sakura-san's little test, You know what he's really like. Her little warning bells will go off before he even steps foot on her land." Pein nodded his head in agreement

"So how do we trick Sakura-san's sisters and keep these three from making Sakura-san's little warning bells from going off and getting kicked out before their even considered?"

"Well, we could get someone to remove Itachi's scars on his face and die his hair red to match his Sharingan and put a genjutsu on his eyes too; at first glance he'll look to have just plain red eyes— if she doesn't look too closely." Konan suggested softly, "if not we can always give him contacts, or explain things to her."

"Explain? You mean flat out lie to her about his eyes?" Pein asked with a raised eyebrow

"Of course," Konan said innocently, as if it was obvious "We can give Sasori silver hair to match his eyes and give contacts to Deidara to turn his eyes yellow instead of having them blue or we can die Deidara's hair blue but I don't think he'll buy that." Konan said pointing to each member in turn, Pein nodded his head.

"I'll through them in… with a few of the others just in case…" Pein said as he placed the files off to the side, Konan rolled her eyes as he placed Kakuso, Tobi and Kisame in the pile."I still need to pick out the other teachers…"

"How many teachers are there going to be?" Konan asked as she took a stack onto the floor with her.

"No clue, how many teachers do we have in the academy?"

"About 15…" Konan said head tilted to the side slightly, "But this is a compound, their expecting at least three times as many students as compared to the academy here in the village…"

"Then we'll just look at the Jonin and the talented chunin," Pein said "I don't want to pull off to many shinobi for this…"

"Then why accept the offer?" Konan asked as she looked up at Pein, he looked down at her for a moment before he continued reading the file in front of him.

"Because it was a good idea and I just didn't have anyone to play head master…"

"That and the compound will be completely self sustaining, right?" Konan smiled at him, Pein mumbled something incoherent and putt the file off to the side. "I guess it doesn't hurt that one of our old clans is returning to us…" Konan whispered, "And she'll be teaching those who are already loyal to us..." Konan smiled as she caught Pein's smirk in the reflection of the window in front of her.

…

"Amekage-sama, Konan-san" Sakura greeted warmly as she rubbed at her eyes sleepily "What are you two doing here so early?" Konan smiled at the girl, a bag slung over her shoulder.

"We have the files for the could-be teachers ," Konan answered, she as Sakura's eyes popped open and s mile spread across her face.

"Really?" Konan nodded and Sakura beamed "Then let's get started!" Konan and her partner fallowed Sakura outside, away from the house and towards her older sisters who were in the middle of a sparring session.

"Ichigo-nee-chan! Yuri-nee-chan!" Sakura called waving, her white and blue Kimono sleeve flaring out in her excited waving. The two girls immanently separated and turned to their little sister.

"Yes?" Yuri asked politely, whipping a bit of sweat from her brow "What is it Imoto?"

"I was wondering if you could keep the Anbu from peaking over our shoulders," Sakura said calmly, "it wouldn't do if they reported back to lady Tsunade about Ame's forces and abilities that might break the treaty." Yuri and Ichigo thought about it for a moment before they shared a glance and then nodded to their little sister. Ichigo's face immanently split into a grin that did not bold well for her enemies… or her new targets.

"I've wanted to test out their abilities," Ichigo said, her smile widening "Thanks for giving me permission to give them a wakeup call." Sakura gave a wiry smile and nodded her head, Ichigo immanently disappeared from sight.

"WAKE UP SLEEPING BEAUTY!" Ichigo's voice rang in the clearing, followed by startled shouts and a couple of explosions and Yuri sighing.

"I'll get the medical kit and kick them out the front," Yuri said as started walk towards chaos, "before Ichigo destroys our new home." Once Yuri was out of sight and one pain filled scream latter, the Amekage and Konan turned to Sakura; both wearing look of gratitude.

"Thank you Sakura-san" Konan said with a gentile smile, "I was worried how you would react when we asked you to go over the files in private."

"No problem," Sakura smiled "if we were in Fire nation it would be lady Tsunade here instead of me, she's much better at picking out teachers then I am." Konan nodded her head, shifting the pack on her shoulder; Sakura smiled and sat on the ground gracefully. "We might as well start here." Konan and Pein offered a few Jonin and Chunin to Sakura almost immanently, but Sakura smiled at them and interrupted them quickly.

"I primarily need at least one teacher for Genjutsu, Taijutsu and someone who specializes in your village's Ninjutsu; do you have anyone who specializes in any one of these areas?" Sakura asked, Konan nodded her head and pulled out three files.

"This is our Genjutsu specialist Itachi," Sakura starred at the red haired young man with red eyes. "He has a blood line in his eyes and he's starting to lose his sight because he can't figure out how to turn it off." Konan explained, Sakura nodded her head "He's also one of our orphans, so he doesn't have a surname." Sakura nodded again.

"I can heal his eyes, it might take a couple sessions because I'll have to study it, but I can get it done in the long run." Sakura said, placing Itachi's file to the side.

"This is Deidara, He specializes in Taijutsu," Konan showed a file to Sakura. Deidara had golden hair and eyes, a section of his hair covering one of his eyes.

"He also specializes in explosives" Sakura deadpanned, "But he can teach the kids how to disarm bombs as well as Taijutsu… does he know anything about seduction?" Sakura asked, looking up at the Amekage.

"Honestly I don't know, I do know he likes to flirt, but I don't know if he'd ever succeeded." The Amekage answered, Sakura nodded her head "Why do you ask?"

"Because I have a teacher in mind for teaching the girls Seduction, but I don't have anyone for the boys." Sakura said "Besides I can of have to find a way to both convince her and blackmail her into it."

"I see, I'll talk to him about it" Amekage said, Sakura nodded

"Who is your ninjutsu specialist?" Sakura asked reaching for the last file; she looked at the picture of a young man with silver hair and eyes.

"That would be Sasori," Konan said calmly "Like Itachi and Deidara he is an orphan of our village."

"He specializes in weapons and poison," Sakura said reading his file, "that's not much of a ninjutsu in less he's a puppeteer," Konan and Pein stiffened slightly, sharing a glance. "I suppose he could help out in the infirmary," Sakura mused "if he doesn't want to do that, he could help teach the kids how to avoided attaches, the medic nin I'll be teaching will have plenty of training time to identify and treat poisoned victims if he's around…" Konan let out a relived sigh as they continued through the files, the three men from the organization she had recommended had made it through the first test; now all they have to do is make it through Sakura's second test.

"This man…" Konan looked up to see Sakura holding a picture of a man with mask covering his face showing only his violet eyes. "What do you know about his talents? The only thing listed is his need to spare every single cent he gets his hands on…" Konan glanced at her partner with a pout, only to see him smirk in response.

"That's Kakuso, he likes to save money and he has a strange ability of knitting limps together," he said glancing at the picture, Sakura nodded her head.

"He'd be good with the management of things around here; he could also help in the infirmary as well when there's an emergency…" Sakura flipped through the rest of his file in thought. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to meet him…" Pein glanced at Konan before he flipped through another file.

"What other teachers do you need?" Pein asked as he glanced up at Sakura she flipped through another file, not looking at the picture, just what they specialized in.

"I need at least two or three to teach the history of Ame, another two or three for mathematics, a few more for the rest of the academy basics…" Sakura trailed off in thought as she read another file, her attention completely wrapped in the file.

"Hmm?" Konan turned to Sakura, "What's up? Who are you reading about?"

"You," Sakura answered as she turned the file's picture towards Konan, "You didn't say anything about being able to use paper for pretty much anything you want it to do…" Konan starred at her picture and then skimmed the paragraph describing her abilities, only then did she look at Sakura's face. She was a little amazed at the smile that greeted her, "It'll be nice to have other girls other then my sisters in the school, and you could help me out with the students." Sakura smiled and gave Konan her file.

"I'll only accept your entrance in the school if you want to be a part of it." Konan took her file and starred at it almost doubly, she glanced at Pein but he wasn't looking at her.

"C-can I think about it?" Konan asked, Sakura's smile widened slightly and she nodded her head.

"Of course, do you have anyone else in mind for the school?" Sakura asked as she turned her attention to the orange haired man next to Konan.

"I have a few here I thought you might like," Pein said handing over a few files, Sakura nodded and took them in to her hands. She skimmed through the files quickly, taking note of their names, ranks and skills.

"I can accept these ten; the other's can stand as guards on the wall for the time being… otherwise I have no need for them." Sakura said as she separated the files, she had three large piles around her.

"Uh which pile is which?" Konan asked as she eyed the piles, Sakura placed her hand a pile that had three other stacks leaning against it.

"These are the ones I'm thinking about for teachers," Sakura placed her hand on the pile slightly closer to Konan, "These ones I'm thinking of being guards, with your permission," Sakura quickly added as she turned to the only guy who nodded his head in agreement. Then she placed her hand to her left on another pile, a pile that was defiantly bigger than the others; the Amekage wasn't sure he liked the size of it.

"This is the pile that I cannot accept; they are still young and inexperienced." Sakura said with an apologetic smile at the two before her. "They show promise, but not enough for teaching others or for guarding the school itself." The Amekage nodded his head and gathered the files up, wrapped them in rubber bands and placed them in his bag.

"Was there anything else you would need for the school?" Konan asked, Sakura nodded her head

"I need seeds for the plants and a few grazing animals, chickens too" Sakura added, "they'll give us eggs and we can hatch more chickens from their eggs when we need them. The same with the other animals, we can bread them for their meat when we need it." Pein and Konan nodded their heads, it was a big order but for it to be self sustaining, it would need many expensive things; but in the end, it would pay itself off.

"We'll make the arrangements…" Konan said nodding her head, Sakura smiled at her when suddenly an explosion sounded, screams echoing around the clearing.

"ICHI-IGO—I!" roared a very familiar voice; Sakura, Konan and the Amekage all snapped around to face the wooden house only to see that the day old house had one wall and half the roof missing. Fire and smoke billowing out of the half destroyed house. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"I WASN'T!" Ichigo yelled back, Sakura sighed as she stood from her place; patting at her legs gently. "THAT WASN'T MY FAULT!"

"I'll leave the rest to you guys," Sakura said smiling, Konan nodded and watched as Sakura disappear towards the burning house.

"Was this really a good idea?" Konan asked just in time to see Sakura give a round house kick to Ichigo's head. The older girl flew across the river and skidded to a halt several dozen feet away.

"I guess we'll find out…" the man whispered back, picking up the file full of those considered to be guards. He picked up the first file and saw the picture that slipped out, he smiled at the image of a man with blue hair. "I got more in then I had planned…"

…

Six months later

…

The sun peaked just beyond the tops of the ancient trees; birds began chirping in the distances. High above the trees stood a creamy white wall, guards rotating calmly and with familiarity at the top. Off in the distance someone rang a bell loudly in the air; people immanently dropped what they were doing and started running for the closest building. A streak of white and red could be seen rushing away from the court yard towards the main house in the compound, the sound of ragged breathing and of a set of feet thumbed harshly across the wooden floor loudly.

"Sakura-sama!" a girl's voice roared out as she slid to a stop in front of the doors, "Sakura-sama!" the girl cried out again as she slammed the doors open to the room, "Sakura-sama major trouble!" in the room with the morning sunlight filtering in, sat a single female figure. Smooth snowy hair cascaded down her back, the sleeves of her kimono laid smoothly at her sides. "Sakura-sama…" the girl said gently, clasping her side as her breath came out harshly.

"I know Aika," Sakura's soft voice sounded in the air of the room as she stood, "The south eastern wall." The girl in the door way nodded her golden head, her azure eyes attached to the younger girl as she slowly turned and approached the door. Aika's eyes widened as she saw the sunlight glint in her mistress's eyes, making her green eyes glow hypnotically. "Send word to Ame Aika, I will go to the wall," Aika nodded her head and disappeared from sight.

"You shouldn't go to the wall," a smooth, calm voice sounded in the hallway. Sakura turned in the entrance of her room and locked eyes with the red haired young man standing next to her door. "You know someone is searching for the 'healing angle'," the red eyed man said eyeing Sakura calmly. "If it's the same person at the gate and if they get their hands on you, you won't come back." Sakura smiled at him gently

"Itachi-san… make sure the little ones get out of the compound safely," Sakura said as she stepped into the hallway, "Deidara-san I expect you to get the wounded in the air," the blond haired young man huffed at Sakura as he stepped out of the shadow next to Itachi.

"I can fight," the young man mumbled to which Sakura gave him a gentle smile.

"I know you can, but the little ones like you and those who can't run as fast as the others will need your help to get to safety." Sakura said, Deidara gave one last glare to Itachi before he nodded his head at Sakura with a pout and exited through a nearby window.

"Sasori-san, will you and Kakuso get ready for the wounded? We don't know what might happen but it's best to be prepared just in case." Sakura turned to the silver haired young man who stood on her right, opposite to Itachi.

"I'll relay the message to Kakuso, but I'd rather be on the wall with some of my top students." Sasori said calmly, Sakura nodded her head with a soft sigh

"You make pick out three, tell the other teachers the same." Sakura said, Sasori nodded his head and disappeared down the hall. "Why are you still here Itachi-san?" Sakura asked as she turned to him, her head tilted to the side as she peered up at him almost innocently.

"You trained the students well," Itachi replied, as he pushed off the wall and started walking towards the closest exit. "As soon as the bell went off the students headed for the little ones and took those they could carry and ran for Ame. Each of them in their own four man teams, two defensives, one offence and a medic was found in each team that was witnessed to leave the compound." Sakura nodded her head, walking down the hall next to the red haired young man "Only the guards, the teachers and the few advanced students remain…"

"So the drills we ran two months ago left a mark, I'm glad; I was little worried…" Sakura mumbled softly, Itachi nodded his head and stepped off the edge of the outside hall. He put on a pair of wooden sandals, "I'll retreat to the wall if there's a fight is that acceptable?" Sakura asked, Itachi nodded his head and turned and offered Sakura his arms. Sakura let out a sigh and wrapped her arms around his neck as Itachi placed one arm behind her back and one under her knees.

"At the first sign of a fight," Itachi said against the top of her head, "You're retreating to the infirmary." That was when the air was knocked out of her lungs as Itachi jumped onto the roof and danced from roof top to roof top.

…

"Let us through!" a man with light blue hair and eyes snapped out rudely, his three teammates standing a few feet behind him. One a quiet young man with spiked midnight blue hair and dark eyes, who didn't a pear to be happy at being there. The other was a red haired girl with glasses who watched the doors of the gate almost wirily. The last member of the team had gray hair and glasses, his eyes were dark as well and well hidden behind his bangs.

"Not on your life!" someone on the roof of the gate snapped out just as rudely.

"Guys," the girl whispered

"We're only here for the healing angel!" the gray haired young man called out politely, his hands extended peacefully.

"Guys," the girl whispered a little more loudly

"We only want to seek this person's help!" the gray haired young man continued, ignoring the shivering girl just behind him. Quickly the girl clutched the sleeve of the boy next to her, her hand shaking almost violently.

"Guys," the girl's voice was just a little louder

"You can't see her!" someone shouted out, a resounded cry echoed from the top of the wall, a cry of pride that the strangers wouldn't see the 'healing Angle'.

"Guys," the girl's voice took on a tone of urgency

"Go away!" someone else shouted

"You're not welcome here!"

"Guys," the girl's voice almost sounded frightful

"Then I guess we'll just have to barge in and take her!" the blue haired young man snapped out, a resounding laughter met his ears. The young man growled and reached for the sword on his back.

"Damn it shut up!" the girl cried out "We need to leave—!" the girl's cry broke off as she collapsed to the ground, her hands twisting in the fabric on her chest.

"Karin," the black haired boy said softly as he starred coldly down at the girl, but she didn't move. She just shivered violently on her knees, starring at the ground as if she were blind.

"What's wrong?" the silver haired boy asked as he placed one hand on her shoulder and crouched to the girl's eye level. Still she didn't respond, just shivered some more, almost uncontrollably, "what do you senses? Who's coming?"

"T-t-t-tr-tro-troub-b-b-l-l-le," the red haired girl, Karin, stuttered out, her crimson eyes wide as she slowly lifted her eyes to the doors of the gates before her. Her three teammates surrounded her and readied themselves for a fight, silence so strong it stilled even the wind. The silence was almost unbearable to Karin as she shivered on the ground like she was standing in knee deep snow; then a sudden cheer rang out over the shinobi on the wall.

A cheer that sounded something akin to 'she's here' and 'Angel'

Several men jumped down from the roof of the wooden gate, two taking hold of the doors, one stepping off to the side as the last man glared at them, his silver hair brushing his clear gray eyes gracefully.

"Looks like you get your wish after all," the man said lowly as he too, stepped aside. "Haruno-sama will be here in a moment."

At that the young man with midnight hair snapped to attention, his eyes locked on the doors that the two men were standing by. When the doors finally started to budge open, the two men took hold of the doors and pulled them open. The small team watched as two girls stepped out, both dressed in crimson kimonos out lined in white circles stepped out; they took two strides forward then turned so that they stood next to the two men who opened the doors, their heads bowed.

Behind them were another two girls, dressed in the same crimson and white kimonos, they took three steps forward, turned and took their place beside the first two girls and then bowed their heads towards the ground. The two girls behind them did the same and the two girls behind them, until the team saw themselves looking down a row of six girls in crimson kimonos and into the dark room that was the entrance gate.

When the doors on the opposite side opened up, the team saw several people walk towards them; a young man towered behind them, his spiky blue hair making him seem even taller.. It was only when the first two stepped through the door way on the outside that the boy with blue hair visibly pouted.

"That's it?" the boy whispered to the gray haired young man beside him, "all this fuss over to two old women?" the two women had green eyes and were dressed in identical blue kimonos with gold, silver and pink stitches sown throughout the cloth. One were the kimono modestly, the other were it a little on the slutty side; showing off her chest with a slit of the kimono etching itself up to under the obi around her waist, the skin half way down the thigh showing off into the perfectly feminine leg of a graceful dancer.

"Old?" a voice whispered, the blue haired boy turned to the two women who hadn't stopped walking towards the team. "Whose old?" suddenly the blue haired boy couldn't move, the woman with thick hair resting on her back was suddenly before him and he was punched straight back from her and into a tree nearly fifteen feet away from the wall.

The gray haired boy tried to strike at her but the girl wasn't where she was a moment ago, she was suddenly standing over the blue haired boy proudly.

"Suigetsu!" the gray haired young man shouted, the woman giggled as she shook the young man's head in her hand almost playfully.

"So that's your name," the woman mused, "If you keep being prideful like this you won't get to meet Sakura-chan," the woman taunted, catching the black haired boy's attention again.

"Who are you?" the boy asked a kunai in hand as he turned in front of the shivering red head protectively. The woman glanced at him and smiled cruelly at him before she dropped the blue haired boy in her hands as he tried to scratch at her with a small blade and a curse. She danced around the gray haired young man as he tried to hit her, but she just spun playfully back to her previous place; a smug smile on her face as she placed a hand on her hip.

"Imoto will scold you latter now," the woman dressed modestly in the kimono chided softly and a playful glare.

"I know, I know," the busty woman said as she scratched the back of her head with a pout.

"Nee-chan," a soft voice called from the beneath the roof of the gate, everyone's attention was instantly drawn to the speaker who hid in the shadows perfectly. The black haired boy swore he knew that voice…

"Yes Imoto," the two women in blue chimed together as they took hands, bowed and waved their hands down the row of girls to the gate towards the person still hiding from sight. "Please welcome our healing angel, Sakura Haruno…" the gray haired boy glanced at the black haired boy almost worriedly, but saw that the other boy was only curiously looking at the hidden figure.

With one step forward the team saw the hem of a elegant white kimono, with the second step the team could see the design of the kimono was etched in silver and crimson stitching. On the third step they saw porcelain white hands sitting elegantly before the young woman who walked slowly towards them, as if teasing them. The fourth step revealed a deep gray obi with snow white leaves and vines and a crimson cord, the fifth step revealed that the girl was small and petite; she was of the elegant kind of girl. The sixth step showed the girl had long snow white hair, on the seventh step the team held their breath and on the eighth step the gray haired young man and the black haired boy thought they would never again breathe. The girl with the closed eyes and snow capped head tilted down wards elegantly took a few more steps forward before she stopped between the two women in blue.

Slowly the girl raised her eyes from the ground and locked them onto the crimson orbs of the girl who trembled on the ground a few feet away from her. Karin froze, her crimson eyes wide with horror, the girl then raised her eyes a little further up to look at the blue haired boy who leaned heavily against the tree as he fought to stand. After starring at him for a moment the girl raised her eyes to lock onto the boy with silver hair and after a moment more of studying she turned her gaze to the boy with black hair and eyes.

"Sakura," the black haired boy whispered as he starred into a pair of eyes that looked as if they were carved from emeralds. The girl before him looked almost the same as his old teammate; if she were given pink hair then she could be his old teammate's twin and he wouldn't have known better.

"Looks like you left a deeper impression than previously thought, Sasuke-kun" the boy with gray hair said as he slouched into a relaxed poison, "Who knew that your old teammate would be given white hair?" the boy pushed his glasses up higher onto his nose, "Or become the famed 'healing angel'…" the girl's eyes lazily traveled to the gray haired boy, it was only when she locked eyes with him that she raised one thin eyebrow.

"Who…" the girl's voice was whisper soft, "are you?" The boy with black hair, Sasuke, starred at the girl with slightly wide eyes.

"You don't remember me?" the boy with silver hair asked, his head tilted slightly, "I'm shocked Sakura-chan, it's me, Kabuto from the chunin exams…" curiosity flashed in the girl's green eyes as she stared at him blankly, blinking slowly as if she didn't care.

"You asked for the healing angel," the girl responded softly, "state your reason for wanting me…" Kabuto and Sasuke starred at her doubly

"You are Sakura Haruno… right?" Kabuto asked, the girl before him nodded her head slowly.

"There are many Haruno's throughout the lands and Sakura is fairly common name amongst us." Sasuke let out a sigh and turned away from the girl before him, instantly Sakura's eyes turned to him. "Were you expecting someone else?" she asked, her head tilting to the side "perhaps you were expecting… to see someone… you miss?"

"Don't be stupid," Sasuke snapped out coldly, "My old teammate had the same name as you; difference is she was the definition of weak." Silence echoed after him, a cold breeze ruffled his hair gently and pulled at his cloths as if in warning.

"Your teammate is Sakura Haruno of the land of fire yes?" Sasuke's eyes widened and he returned his attention back to his teammate's look alike, only to see that it wasn't the girl who had spoken. "The girl who is the Hokage's apprentice?"A young man with crimson hair and eyes stood next to Sakura, his arm lifted with the white haired girl's hand resting on it gently.

"Chitai-kun…" Sakura breathed calmly, Sasuke starred at the man; he looked just like his older brother, for the exception of red hair, _plane_ red eyes and the lack of scars on his face made Sasuke hesitate in charging the young man.

"Is that the girl you are speaking of?" the man asked ignoring Sakura completely "The Haruno child born with pink hair and is the pride of the village hidden in the leafs? Are you speaking of the girl who could crush mountains with her pinky and heal almost any wound? _That_ Sakura Haruno?" Sasuke starred into the cold green gaze of the healing angel, the young man turned to Sasuke, his eyes just as cold as the white haired girl standing at his side.

"Is this the girl you call weak?" Sakura's soft voice asked Sasuke coldly "the girl who is over shadowed by a jinjuriki and a bloodline?" Sasuke didn't answer; he just starred at the two before him. How strange it was too see someone who looked like his brother holding the hand of a girl who could be his teammate.

"This girl you call weak speaks to me often. That is how I know about you, Sasuke Uchiha." The girl turned her frigidly cold gaze to Kabuto, "it is also how I recognized your name, Kabuto Yakushi…" Kabuto starred shocked at Sakura and the red haired man, everyone was silent for a moment before Kabuto smiled at Sakura.

"Then I suppose you won't help us?" Kabuto asked, his head tilted slightly, Sakura blinked slowly at him before she let out a sigh.

"I'll help you," Sakura said, Kabuto watched as the girl turned and with flick of her wrist her Kimono spun around perfectly in her wake and trailed after her elegantly. "I'll help you to your graves." The two women smirked and fallowed after the small white haired girl, their insanely tall companion falling closely behind, his hand hovering close to his shoulder next to his sword's handle.

It took every last bit of Kabuto's training to keep the shiver from running up his back, Kabuto watched as the people on the wall readied themselves. The six girls in red slowly fell into step behind Sakura and her sisters as she slowly disappeared into the gate, the two women in blue smiled at him pleasantly as the gates closed.

The silver haired man smirked at the strange team almost smugly as he took his place beside the red haired man.

"It's best for you to leave…" the silver haired man said calmly, his voice frightening cold, "I do believe that our close friend the Amekage will be sending his best Shinobi here. In fact their properly… already… here." Kabuto's brow twitched, he didn't like this red haired man at all. Kabuto took a step back, before he stooped to the ground, picked up Karin and jumped to the nearest tree.

"Let's go!" Kabuto snapped out as he landed and jumped off again, not waiting to see if his last two members fallowed his orders. It didn't take long before he could hear to people rushing behind him, one glance showed Sasuke carrying Shuigetsu.

"The mission failed!" Kabuto called over his shoulder, "the 'healing angel' had better connections then we thought."

"You don't say?" Suigetsu asked sarcastically through his swollen mouth, "and here I thought she was clairvoyant!"

…

"Sakura-sama," Itachi bowed respectfully towards Sakura as she stepped out from the inside of the gate, Sakura looked towards him expectantly. "Would you like me to take a team and fallow after them?" Sakura tilted her head in thought before she nodded, gently Sakura's knuckles wrapped against the bowed head of Itachi's crimson locks.

"Don't interfere like that again," Sakura said gently, a smile twitching on her lips. "Thank you for the complements though," Itachi straightened and nodded his head in response. "Make sure the team isn't full of students this time and report to me before you leave please." Sakura said, her eyes scanning the lines of ready shinobi in front of her; there was an easy number of at least a hundred or so.

"I don't want anyone fallowing them who can't handle a skilled medic-nin, got it?" Sakura asked, "I don't want anyone to get into a fight with Kabuto, he likes chakra scalpels and isn't afraid to use them. Anyone who isn't like lady Tsunade shouldn't fight him… even I couldn't win against a fight with that man."

Itachi frowned at Sakura before he nodded his head and disappeared; if Sakura was that concerned about the gray haired boy then he'd just have to take the people he knew wouldn't get touched by him. Itachi smiled as he realized that Sakura hadn't said a word about the rest of the team, she had only told him to be wiry of Kabuto. Did that mean she only thought Kabuto to be a threat? That didn't sound right…

Itachi landed on the top of the wall next to Kisame, the blue haired man turned towards him just enough for Itachi to catch his pasty white skin. At least his transformation jutsu was still in place that was a plus.

"Well?" Kisame asked a little grumpily, Itachi straightened and turned towards the silver haired man to his left. "What are our orders?" Itachi noted Sasori's three students look at him expectantly, like they want him to tell them that they would be able to trail after the small team and track them. Itachi knew that he would catch the same anxious look from Kisame's favorite three as well, even his own top three students were crouched before him looking at him expectantly.

"Sasori-san, Kisame-san, we are to report to Sakura-san as soon as possible for further instructions." Itachi said calmly, the nine students' collapsed to the floor of the wall with loud groans of dismay. Itachi turned sharp crimson eyes to his own three top students who immanently stiffened and just as quickly stood ramrod straight. "Sakura-san does not want students on this mission."

"Why?" one of Kisame's students asked bluntly, turning Itachi starred at the young man distastefully. "It's not like any of us can't hold our own, that team won't know what hit them!" Kisame chuckled at his student amusedly.

"Your kid has damaged hearing," Sasori deadpanned, "he didn't hear a word of what Sakura-san said about the gray haired boy."

"What was that?" the boy asked, glaring at Sasori "I'm not deaf!"

"You said it," Sasori's only top female student snickered, earning a glare from the angry boy.

"Enough," Itachi said, "We are to go to Sakura-san _now_." Itachi said flatly, only stretching the last word before he phased out of sight.

"Someone's got a stick up his—" Kisame's other male student started before he was cut off by Itachi's students.

"Shut your mouth!" the two girls snapped out, their voices almost echoing around them. "Can't you ever say anything that doesn't involve swearing?!" Sasori's students slowly backed away, hoping not to get caught up in the argument from the other two teams.

…

Itachi, Kisame and Sasori raced through the forest, their minds weren't even on the mission they were given. It was on the message that the girl they were spying on had said to them.

…

"_Sakura-san you had called us to meet before we left," Itachi said softly, Sakura glanced at the three men before she turned her attention back on the paper before her._

"_I was wondering if you were going to pick them," Sakura said calmly, the three men stiffened and starred at Sakura. "I was top of my class for a reason boys, I wasn't born yesterday." Sakura said as she flicked a piece of paper towards Itachi, she wasn't surprised to see the young man hadn't moved an inch._

"_What are you talking about, Sakura-san?" Itachi asked carefully, eyeing the thick paper that flipped face down against the hard wood floor._

"_She means you can drop the henge!" Ichigo cheered from her drunken placement in the corner, the three men starred at her blankly as Ichigo hiccupped and Sakura sighed. "We know your spies—!"_

"_Ichigo-nee," Sakura's voice was soft and almost whinny sounding_

"_uh… ye~s" Ichigo asked with a stupid smile on her face_

"_Why do you have be so damn blunt all the time?" Sakura asked, Ichigo stopped and actually _thought_ about that one. Sakura let out another sigh and turned back to the three men who were still in their original placements. _

"_I've known from the begging that Amekage-sama would send in a team to constantly feed him information because honestly… that's what I would have done." Sakura scratched at her temple, her eyes still on the three men who hadn't moved._

"_I was just wondering if Deidara and Kakuso were a part of your team, I've noticed that Deidara likes to work with Sasori and has an unhealthy hatred for Itachi, and that you Itachi work well with Kisame. Like you've both had practice at working together…" Sakura starred at the men before she let out a sigh, "besides that it was rather cleaver, choosing to make you five have stories of orphans with no surname at all… I wonder if I would have done the same…" Sakura stopped as she thought about it "yeah… properly…" Sakura stopped and looked back at the three men, they didn't look any different than before and they still hadn't moved._

"_I don't suppose you'll drop the henge huh?" Sakura let out a sigh, "it doesn't really matter either way…" Sakura pointed at the paper "The black haired boy in that picture is the boy we met outside of the walls today." Itachi reached forward and pulled the paper towards him and flipped it over, Kisame and Sasori leaning close to get a better view of their target; only it wasn't just their target._

…

Itachi landed and turned on his branch, Kisame and Sasori mimicking him; there in the distance he could just barely make out the tall wall of the Haruno compound. The three men released their henge's, reveling their true identities.

"When will we tell Leader?" Kisame asked as he looked at the wall, the wind blew gently; making his cloak with crimson clouds stitched on it, sway gently for a moment before it settled again.

"As soon as we make sure little brother's team leaves Ame," Itachi replied as he turned and jumped to the next tree.

…

"_So continuing with the reason that you're here," Sakura smiled and clapped her hands together, her full attention on the three men before her. "The man you saw at the gate with gray hair is named Kabuto, he's a medic Nin and frankly he's an embracement to the industry. If you should ever encounter him go for the kill immanently and don't let him see you and even more important than that DON'T let him TOUCH YOU, got it?"_

…

"So why do you think Sakura-san hates this Kabuto fellow?" Kisame asked, looking at his partner, the younger man shrugged his shoulder dismissively. "I think he hurt her," Kisame stated, he waited for a moment to let it sink in to Sasori's and Itachi's heads "I think he hurt her during the Chunin exams they had just before your brother left the village."

"Anything's possible," Itachi replied, his eyes narrowed slightly; Kisame didn't know if it was because of the wind or if that bit of knowledge irritated him; but he did notice how Itachi and Sasori almost immanently started going faster.

"Are we going to kill him?" Kisame asked as he raced next to the two silent men.

"No." was the clipped answer; Kisame knew right then that if Kabuto didn't hit the boarder soon he was going to be in a world of hurt when they caught up. Kisame knew that determination in Sasori's eyes and the stiffness in Itachi's shoulders as well as he knew his sword.

Hell was about to rain on someone's very unlucky head…

…

The Amekage sat his desk, his fingers folded as he finished reading the latest report from Itachi, Kisame and Sasori within the Haruno compound. Just as he was about to start at the beginning again for the fifth time in a row, Konan stepped into his office with a tray of two coffee cups on it.

"This room is always so cold, why don't you ever keep it warm in here?" Konan asked with a soft smile at her partner, he had noticed that since Sakura and her sister's arrival Konan had been doing that a lot more and he didn't mind it at all.

"Pein? Is something wrong?" Konan asked as she tilted her head to the side, wordlessly he gestured for Konan to place the cups on the window seal. Konan huffed, miming Sakura almost perfectly, and did as she was silently told, as she turned around to say something she was caught off guard by a scroll shoved into her hands.

"You need to read this," Pein said as he turned away from Konan, not meeting her eyes at all. Concerned slightly, Konan nodded her head and sat on the floor with the scroll in her hands. She unrolled it and began reading it; at first it was just the standard report from Itachi, Kisame and Sasori so she started to lazily read it until she got to the part about the emergency evacuation of the Haruno compound.

…

"_The black haired boy in that picture is one of the boys we met outside of the walls today." Sakura pointed at the paper, Itachi reached forward and pulled the paper towards him and flipped it over, Kisame and Sasori leaning close to get a better view of their target; only it wasn't just their target._

"_Uh, Sakura-san I think you gave us the wrong picture," Kisame said as he pointed to the picture, but Sakura was looking out the window; lost in her own world. Kisame called out to her again before he thumped his hands together loudly, causing both Sakura and Ichigo to nearly jump out of their skins. As Sakura turned back to the men in her office she ignored the smothered shouts from Ichigo._

"_What was that for Kisame-san?" Sakura asked, looking a little startled. "I don't recall scaring you!" Sakura nodded her head at Yuri as she knocked Ichigo out._

"_Uh… I was wondering if you gave us the wrong picture," Kisame said, he took the picture from Itachi and flipped towards Sakura; but she only smiled at the sight._

"_It's a picture of a genin team in Konoha." Kisame said, waving the picture at Sakura as if she wasn't seeing it right; the younger girl let out a chuckle and waved a dismissive hand at Kisame._

"_I know that lord Amekage told you I am a kunochi of Konoha…" Sakura deadpanned, she pointed at the picture in Kisame's hand, "that is my team." Sakura said with a small sad smile, "the gray haired man is Kakashi Hatake, my Jonin sensei, the blond boy to my left in the picture is Naruto Uzimaki, and the boy to my right is my childhood crush: Sasuke Uchiha."_

"_Sakura-san you aren't in the picture," Kisame deadpanned looking slightly irritated with the younger girl, even more so when she smiled childishly at him._

"_I'm in the center," Sakura said pointing to the blushing and eagerly smiling pink haired girl. Sasori snatched the picture from Kisame and studied it once more, tilting it so that Kisame could get a good look and Itachi could look without actually letting anyone see that he was looking._

"_You look nothing like this doll!" Kisame grumbled a little loudly as he pointed an accusing finger at the picture, Sakura's smile fell slightly and her eyes filled with so much sadness she looked to be on the edge of tears; quickly Sakura turned her face back to look out the window beside her._

"_I'm not so different now," Sakura said softly, "I'm not a power house like Naruto, nor do I have a bloodline like Sasuke, I don't even have a special talent; which apparently is the only thing that counts in the shinobi world…"_

"_That's not entirely true…" Sasori mumbled softly, Itachi and Kisame both had bloodlines so they couldn't say anything to her about it. "I know many famous Shinobi that don't have bloodlines nor are they power houses."_

"_Oh?" Sakura turned to Sasori, her eyes glistening with interest but echoing with something he didn't want to recognize, "So name someone you know of that doesn't have a blood line, is as famous as Kakashi-sensei or Itachi Uchiha and isn't in this compound." Itachi's eyes slid discreetly towards Sasori and he knew that the puppet master realized he walked straight into that one. After a couple minutes of silence Kisame gave a snort and quickly covered his mouth with his hand, Itachi straightened in his seat with closed eyes, Sakura's eyes didn't waver from Sasori's thoughtful one for a second._

"_You could have named Jiraya or Tsunade of the Sanin," Sakura said with a soft smile, "neither of them has a bloodline, although three of the two Sanin do come from a great clan…"_

"_There is also the healing angle," Sasori said as he gave the girl a small smile_

"_Sakura-san" Itachi's voice was soft as attention was once again returned to him, the picture of Sakura's team held between two of his fingers. "Why do you look so different in this picture?" Sakura sighed with a hum as she swiveled in her chair towards the young men and placed her elbow on her desk as she laid her head on her hand. A dreamy look slipped onto Sakura's face as she starred at the image of team seven nearly two years ago._

"_That picture was taken just after team seven was formed," Sakura mused, "when I was given this mission I was given permission from my family to become the head of house in Ame. To do this one must become a main house member, which means I had to change my hair color." Sakura let out a sigh, her eyes closing briefly; when they opened again they were starring at the floor just past her feet._

"_The jutsu used to do this works as a double edged sword," Sakura said with a sigh, "once my mission here in Ame is finished, my hair will return pink and my memories of this place will vanish." Sakura looked up at the men kneeling before her again, "Once I cross the border of Ame my memories will be immanently sealed and when we next meet, it'll be as if we've never met…"_

"_Are you serious Sakura-san?" Sasori asked interested by this information, Sakura nodded her head sadly._

"_It is a jutsu that is only known to the main house," Sakura said softly "If I knew how it works; I could try to study up on it and try to counter its affects…"_

"_What are you going to do when you return to Konoha and you realize that you're missing two years worth of memories?" Kisame asked, Sakura gave another sigh and gentle smile._

"_I have a Kagebushin in Konoha; she continues living as if I'm still there. Too do this I must constantly give her more chakra. So every week, with the updates I give to lady Tsunade, I send a scroll along that is filled with as much of my chakra that I can give." Realization dawned on Kisame's face; he pounded a fist into his palm as if he just had an idea._

"_So that's why you're always sick at the end of every week just after you send off the letters!" Sakura smiled brightly at Kisame, her eyes glowing as a chuckle bubbled out of her mouth._

"_How much of your memories will be sealed?" Sasori suddenly asked, Sakura's attention returned to him instantly a frown on her face._

"_Everything between when I received the seal on the day I first arrived on the border of Ame, to the moment I step out of the border of Ame."_

"_Is there a way to stop this from happening?" Sasori asked, Sakura blinked at him in surprise_

"_Sure, I just can't leave Ame territory. So long as I'm on Ame land then my memories won't get sealed."_

"_If you were to step off Ame land now but came back to Ame land in, say, three years, would you get your memories back?" Sasori asked, Sakura blinked a couple of times before she turned to look at Yuri. The older woman shrugged her shoulders, Ichigo was out cold and if Yuri didn't know then Ichigo didn't know._

"_Honestly, I don't know" Sakura answered she turned back to Sasori "It properly would considering the seal would become a part of me," at Kisame's confused face and the two passively blank ones pointed at her, Sakura sighed and thought about it for a moment._

"…_It's like… a tattoo… on my brain" Sakura chuckled at her explanation, "it's a seal made completely by the chakra of a main house member, so long as that member doesn't die the seal will remain there inside of me." Sakura smiled at them "like a hibernating bear that waits for spring, the seal will most likely go to sleep once I pass the Ame boarders."_

"_Does that mean it's active right now?" Kisame asked, Sakura nodded her head_

"_Yes, the seal is acting like a blank book; it records everything that happens every day so that when it needs to go to rest it can seal everything that is important and unimportant, like closing a book; Nothing will be left out."_

…

Konan let the scroll drop out of her hands, she had reread that one part three times and she still didn't want to belief it. She looked up into the ringed eyes of her partner who was starring out the window that showed the village, he still wasn't looking at her.

"Is there a way to remove it?" Konan asked softly, Pein looked away as he slumped into his chair. "Would removing it kill her?"

"most likely…" silence echoed in the room as Pein starred out the rain covered village, he knew Konan was starring out the window; he also knew she wasn't seeing anything past her reflection in the window. Silence passed in seconds, then minutes, then the silence passed in hours and before either one realized it the village was getting its first sunlight it's seen for the day.

"I think we should go to Konoha," Konan said softly, Pein turned to her curiously "we could make contact with the clone without anyone else noticing. We could introduce ourselves like normal shinobi do… we could find away to be friend the clone…" Konan turned and locked eyes with Pein "If the clone's memories replace hers when she leaves, then she'll still remember us when she returns to Konoha." Pein thought about it possibly working, the possibilities weren't in their favor; they'd have to make one hell-of-a entrance…

"Can we go to Konoha?" Konan asked when Pein didn't look at her, just when she thought he wouldn't answer and she'd have to suggest another way; Pein locked eyes with her.

"Yes…" he whispered "We will go to Konoha and make contact with Sakura Haruno…"

…

It took Konan two weeks to travel to Konoha through her paper clones, and another three days to find the right moment to interact with Sakura. She found her chance when the younger pink haired girl stepped out of the hospital late one evening and didn't quite notice the three men fallowing behind her. When Sakura turned to go down an Ally as a short cut, she was surprised to find that a man was standing in her way, when she turned to go the long way home she found another two men standing there with smug looks on their faces.

_Great,_ Sakura thought _just great, I'm low on chakra and tired and these thugs are looking for a good time. I'm royally screwed…_ Sakura didn't pay any attention to what the three men were talking about; she was busy trying to find their week points.

"the apprentice of the fifth Hokage will catch a good price!" one man cried as raised his wooden baseball bat up to hit her, Sakura jumped away just in time to get skimmed on her forearm. Holding the bruised limb close, Sakura gritted her teeth and tried her best to avoid their grapy hands but she tripped and got pinned to the ground. Before she could do anything else a flurry of what looked like paper rushed out of now where and beat the men back with multiple waves.

"W-what is this?" one of the men cried as pieces of paper started to pull him away from Sakura, his friends soon scrambled to their feet and started to beat at the sudden wave of paper. Sakura let out a startled cry as she was suddenly pulled away from the ally, she grunted as she landed harshly into a chest. The person holding her wrapped their arms around her shoulders and knees and then Sakura screamed as they were suddenly flying through the air. Clamping her mouth shut Sakura clung to the person holding her, they were more than just a few hundred feet in the air; Sakura held her breath as her wide eyes starred down at the ground with a horrified expression.

"You're scared of heights?" a deep voice asked with a chuckle, Sakura looked up at the person holding her and found herself starring into a man's face, his nose and ears had six piecing each, his lip had two piecing in it and he had a pair of purple ringed eyes and wild orange hair.

"I didn't scare the life out of you," Sakura grumbled out childishly as she fought back the tears in her eyes. "Can you please put me back on the ground?" the man smiled at her dropped his arms from around her, Sakura's eyes winded as she felt herself slip away from; she sucked in a deep breath and wrapped her arms his waist. "Safely please!" Sakura cried as she wrapped her legs around his, "Safely please! Please put me on the ground SAFELY!"

"Open your eyes miss" A new voice giggled softly, Sakura opened her eyes slightly and saw a woman with blue hair and eyes smiling softly in front of her, a large white rose holding a bun up in her hair and a silver dud in her bottom lip. "Your safe now, we have no intention of hurting you." Sakura looked down and saw that they were on large white platform, still a few hundred feet in the air.

"How long are you going to hold on to me?" the man asked, blushing furiously Sakura immanently let go of the strange man who saved her and landed softly on the strange floating platform.

"Is this paper?" Sakura asked, looking like she just met a ghost, the strange blue haired woman before her smiled playfully at her.

"It's perfectly safe," the woman answered calmly, "My name is Konan, what is yours?" Sakura looked up at the woman for a moment; both of them wore the same head band, hesitantly Sakura reached forward and shook the woman's hand from where she sat on the platform.

"Sakura," she answered wirily "Sakura Haruno…" Sakura looked between the two of them as they sat down together before her, "uh… why did you save me?"

"Where we're from that kind of thing happens a lot," Konan answered as she pointed to where the three men were held together in a huge mass of a paper ball "so we just reacted like we always do back at home."

"You reacted first," the man mumbled as if he disapproved, but Sakura had the since that he didn't mind saving her in the least.

"You guys are from the village hidden in the rain," Sakura said as she straightened in her spot, "Why are you two here?" Konan and the man shared a glance before they answered her.

"She's smart," Konan whispered softly, "Smarter than most Genin…"

"We're here to speak to your Hokage," the man answered, "we're representatives of Ame." Sakura nodded her head as if she understood this face.

"We've been waiting for you guys to arrive," Sakura answered "Tsunade-Saisho was starting to get worried."

"Tsunade-Saisho?" Konan asked softly "Your teacher is the famous Tsunade Senju?" Sakura beamed at her cheerfully, a blush as bright as her hair fanned across her cheeks.

"We got a little lost," the man stated, as if to distract the two women before him, Sakura turned her towards him and nodded her head in understanding.

"That happens a lot," Sakura said, "to be honest a few of us who live here still get lost on occasion,"

"Really?" Konan asked "I thought everyone native here would know all the roads around here," Sakura shook her head softly.

"Most people just know the parts of the village that they have the most contact with," Sakura answered "it's slightly different with the shinobi, especially the clan ones. They have to interact with each other so often that that most have the village pretty much memorized. Anyways I can point you too where lady Tsunade is."

"That'd be helpful," the man answered, Sakura smiled at him with a light chuckle and pointed towards a crimson building that stood out above all the others.

"That's were her office is, if she's not there then she's at the hospital," Sakura lowered her figure to down to point at another tall white building that they had seen her excite from.

"Thank you Haruno-san" Konan said with a small soft smile, "is there any where you'd like us to drop you off at?" Sakura smiled back at Konan, but her right eyebrow ticked twice before she nodded her head.

"Yes," Sakura answered "could you place me on the roof of that house over there?" Sakura asked as she pointed at an apartment building, Konan nodded her head and lowered the three of them to the top of the building. Sakura jumped off from the plat form, turned and smiled and thanked the two as they rose out of her sight.

"Sakura" Sakura turned around and saw her teacher standing on the roof, "What are you doing here?"

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura smiled and turned towards the man, "I was coming home from the hospital."

"Oh? And who were those two?" Kakashi asked, "They were pretty powerful…"

"They saved me from some thugs," Sakura said with a smile, "Although I will admit I'm not nearly as tired as I was before…"

"Considering I just watched you fly down from a height that would make the birds envious I'm not surprised." Kakashi replied "So why'd you come to my roof?"

"I figured you're place would be safer than having them land on my roof," Sakura replied with a smile, "They are after all, foreign ninja."

"Smart move," Kakashi nodded his head and patted Sakura on her head, "although I think they noticed the sudden difference in your destination, we do live two streets away from each other…" Sakura gave a nervous chuckle and scratched at her cheek softly.

"They were the representatives for rain country," Sakura said, "I've never seen anyone like them before," Sakura said with a soft smile "The man had purple eyes and a lot of piercings and the woman could manipulate paper!"

"I think you should hurry home now, before your parents worry," Kakashi chuckled at his student; Sakura giggled and nodded her head.

"I'll see you soon Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said with a bright smile before she jumped off his roof and disappeared down the street towards her house.

…

Four months later

…

Yuri placed a small purple stone into the updated scroll for Tsunade; the stone was filled with so much of Sakura's chakra that the younger girl had literally passed out once she was done filling the stone. Yuri turned to look at her bed ridden sister and sighed as Sakura continued to sleep despite the loud groaning of Ichigo in the corner of the room.

"If we head back to the village," Ichigo said as she sat up on her elbows "none of us are going to remember this place." Ichigo paused as she looked up at her elder twin, "You think the seal still works on us?" Ichigo asked her eyes cloudy with her thoughts; Yuri turned to her twin and raised an eyebrow.

"No," Yuri said softly "it only works on Sakura because this is her special place, it gives her strength, which in turn strengthens the seal."

"Right because the seal is only as strong as it's barer," Ichigo mumbled softly "damn that Uchiha brat!" Ichigo cursed, "Of all the boys to break Sakura's heart it just _had_ to be a traitorous _Uchiha_!"

"At least we don't have to be here for much longer," Yuri supplied calmly, "It's already been a year, we have one more to go through before we need to head back to the village." Ichigo turned back to her sister, her eyes almost searching as she looked back at the sleeping form of her younger sister.

"How do you think the student's will react?" Ichigo asked looking slightly lost; Yuri paused as she held the scroll in her hand.

"I think the students will be relieved when they find out that their lecherous teacher finally leaves them alone," Yuri smirked as she placed the scroll into the talons of the large messenger bird and Ichigo gave an annoyed shout.

Just outside of the window, behind the bend not even three feet from the window where the released messenger bird flew away into the sun heading south, stood a shaking blond haired girl. Her blue green eyes were wide; her pale hands gripped her broom tightly as they shook in their crimson sleeves etched in white.

"Mistress…" the girl's soft voice sounded, "Mistress… is leaving?" not too sure what to do, the girl ran off to her dorm room where she cried until her room mates came in searching for her that evening.

"Hay what's wrong Aika?" called the brunet as she kneeled next to the weeping blond, "Sweet heart look at me," the girl shook the blond lightly.

"Aika quite being a baby" Snapped a dark blue haired girl as she placed her hands on her hips, "We're Haruno's for crying out loud! We don't cry!"

"Kashin!" the brunet snapped out

"She's leaving!" Aika cried out as she turned to look at her three cousins, "Sakura-sama and her sisters are leaving!" Aika buried her face into her pillow and wailed some more before someone dropped something, looking up Aika saw her gray haired cousin Mika standing in the door way; a shattered glass at her feet.

"Their leaving?" Mika asked softly, Aika looked at her miserably for a moment before she whipped at her eyes and sat up in her bed.

"By next year," Aika hick-upped "by the end of next year, they'll leave to return to their village…" Kashin crashed to her knees before Aika, her hands crippling the blonds tightly as she starred into the hazel green orbs.

"Are you sure about this?" Kashin asked, her face pale as her own faintly green eyes searched Aika's eyes for anything that might be seeping into a lie. "What were their exact words?"

"Yuri-sama s-said that" Aika hick-upped again as she whipped at her eyes, "she said '_It's already been a year, we have one more to go through before we need to head back to the village'_ that sounds like their leaving to me!" Kashin's hands fell to her sides as she sat back from her roommate, Mika collapsed to her knees in the doorway, her milky hair raising up and then falling gently around her shoulders.

"Their leaving…" the brunet whispered gently "How could they leave… just like that?"

"The orientation…" Kashin whispered softly as her eyes suddenly dulled at the memory rolling through her head "at the orientation, when we all first arrived here, Sakura-sama and her sisters each said—"

"No one lasts forever," the brunet whispered, cutting her friend off, "that one day everyone must leave this place to find their own path…"

"_That one day this place will be filled with nothing but the forgotten flowers of memories past_" Mika recited "They they were going to leave, that's why they said it like that, to prepare us…"

"To prepare us for their departure…" Kashin whispered "that's why they were always so distant, they didn't want anyone getting attached…" everyone was quite for a moment

"Can we stop them?" Aika whispered, her eyes suddenly back to life "Can we find a way to keep them here? At least for a little longer?" her roommates looked at her,

"There's no way to stop them," Mika whispered softly "Once mistress decides something there is no way to convince her otherwise."

"Ah!" Aika's voice sounded, her cousins looked at her expectantly "In order to leave they'd need someone to replace Sakura-sama right?" The girls nodded and the blonds' eyes took on a determined look, "Then let's become that someone."

"What?" Kashin whispered, "Aika what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that in case we can't make them stay," Aika started as she looked at each of her cousins, "then we could take this place over until they return."

"What? you mean like become a council?" the brunet asked

"Exactly Kana" Aika answered, "In order to become the council we'll have to work our ass's off to prove we're up to the task." The three girls starred wide eyed at Aika

"Do you" Mika paused for a moment "Do you really… do you really think… think that we—that we can?" Mika stuttered out, her eyes full of hope as she starred at Aika, "C-can w-we b-become—can we become… Th-the coun—counsel?"

"Yes," Aika answered after a moment "Because I don't trust anyone else in this school to run it."

"Or anyone else from the outside," Kashin added, her midnight blue eyes determined "We were the first to be found by Sakura-sama, we're the only ones who are capable of running this school." Kana smiled and placed her hand forward,

"For Na" Kana smirked at Kashin before she looked at Aika,

"For Ka" Aika whispered as she placed her hand on top of Kana's, they both looked at Kashin who blinked at them; suddenly a hand slammed down on top of Aika's. Looking up into silver locks, Kashin found Mika starring at the pile of small hands before the younger girl turned silver-green eyes on her.

"For Mi" Mika whispered softly, her steal like eyes seemed to be like a contagious fire, for even Kashin smirked up at her

"For Shi" Kashin added as she placed her hand in the center, each girl smirked up at each other.

"For Mi-Shi-Ka-Na!" the girls chimed together as they bounced their hands together "Mishikana! Mishikana! Mishikana!" the girls sang as they all started laughing and fell on to the floor.

"Hay wait," Mika said through her fits of laughter "don't we need a fifth?" her roommates paused as they straightened, "We'll need someone to break the tie votes…"

"Not only that," Aika said as she leaned against her bed, "We need to master all five of our teachings," now all of them paused as they starred at each other suddenly feeling very glum. "If we don't, Sakura-sama might not choose us as her successors…"

"We need to master all five?" Mika whispered, "We need to start taking things seriously now…"

"Who will be our fifth member?" Kashin asked

"Someone who's well respected by the rest of the student body," Kana said softly

"And a Haruno," Aika whispered

"And someone of the opposite sex," Kashin added with a smirk, instantly the other girls glared at her, "easy, easy" Kashin said smiling as she raised her hands up defensively "we can't have everyone think that we're a bunch of power hungry women now can we? We can only see through one side of things, we need a man's point of view too, we just have to be careful who we choose. We'll end up working with him a lot so it'll be important that we don't choose the wrong male."

"Right," Aika said slightly sarcastically "so how many Haruno men do you know of that's well respected by the other students, well off in his studies, has a good head on his shoulders, is easy to work with, _and_ isn't power hungry?"

"Only one comes to mind" Kashin said with a smug smirk,

…

"You've got to be kidding me," Aika whispered as she stared at the young man in the training ground, Kashin smirked at the disbelieving looks on the three other girl's faces.

"Nope," Kashin smirked "his name is—"

"No," Kana dead panned

"Huh?" Kashin looked at her roommate with wide eyes "why not?"

"Because… because…" Kana paused as she tried to think of something, glowering at a patient, and slightly smug looking, Kashin Kana snapped out her answer quickly, "Because I said so!"

"So what's wrong with him?" Kashin asked with a raised eye brow and crossed arms

"Look at him," Kana replied as she waved a hand at the boy, true he wear the kimono uniform made for men, but it looked like it came from five different pieces all together; his clothes were the definition of old. His hair was long and ratty and hiding his eyes, he kept slipping every time he landed, and he looked like he just got out of a particularly nasty fight. "He looks like someone who just stepped out of a battle field with Amnesia!"

"That's all easily fixable," Kashin waved a dismissive hand, her eyes a light "his paper tests are always number one, he excels in almost everything…"

"Oh and tell me," Kana crossed her arms under her rather large chest "what is it that he fails at?"

"Hand-to-hand combat," Kashin said lightly. "Nothing a little bit of training can't cure; besides we all suck at hand-to-hand combat."

"Can I help you?" Kana nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice from behind her, jumping around Kana half hid behind Aika and Mika who weren't paying the boy any attention either and were currently cowering together.

"W-when d-did you…" Kana stumbled off as she looked between the distance between the training posts and the young man who stood in front of them a little hesitantly; there was at least a hundred feet or so difference between the two destination. "When did you get over here?" Kana's voice was weak and small as she looked up into the hair covered face of a young man.

"While you were talking rather loudly about me," the young man said softly as he cocked his head to the side, "What is that you want with me?"

"We want to know if you'd like to help us—"

"Kashin!" Kana shouted loudly as she lunged at the older girl and quickly covered her mouth "No way! Not gonna—"

"They're going to form a council," a soft voice sounded, interrupting Kana's hurried shout; Kana snapped around to see another black haired girl standing in the entrance "they were wondering if you'd be the fifth member of their council."

"Great," Kana slapped her forehead with a sigh as she stepped away from Kashin "when did she find out?"

"While you were talking about it earlier" the girl said softly as she twirled her thumbs together "big brother, please join them…" she bowed to the young man

"Why should I join them, Imoto?" he asked just as softly, the girl looked up to her brother quickly, a fire in her black eyes.

"Because mistress is leaving at the end of the year," she said softly "they want to form a council to protect the school from the outsiders, but they need a fifth member in case of votes."

"Mistress is leaving?" the boy whispered, "How do you know this?"

"Because I heard Yuri-sama and Ichigo-sama talking about it," Aika said as she crossed her arms almost defiantly "at the end of the year they'll be leaving to return to their village."

"Aren't they from the rain village?" the boy asked softly "If they are then it's not like they'd be gone forever, they'll just be half a day's travel—"

"Mistress if from the land of fire," Aika dead panned "She'll be returning to Konoha, which is like a weak and half away from here." The boy was stunned into silence "We decided to become the next council members to protect this school and its students, in order to do this we must have a fifth member of the opposite sex."

"This way the council wouldn't have only one point of view of things," Kashin quickly adds "we'll have a well rounded point of few."

"Okay so why me?"

"We needed a male" Aika whispered softly "preferably one from the Haruno clan."

"There are twenty others…" the boy said

"But they aren't well liked by everyone else in the school" Kashin piped up again, a smile still spread across her face "We needed someone who would think of the school first and everything else second."

"We needed someone with a good head on their shoulders" Mika said "Someone who wouldn't get power hungry."

"And someone who was well rounded in the five techniques of this school." Kana added quickly, when everyone looked at her she crossed her arms tightly and looked away from the young man.

"We need someone this school could count on," Aika said as she stood straight "Will you help us?" the boy was silent as he thought about it

"Aren't your guy's grads pretty bad?" the boy asked, Aika and Mika nearly fell over, Kana pretended not to hear and Kashin snickered lightly

"Told you he had a good head," Kashin giggled softly "He's perfect for the job," the young man smiled at Kashin in thanks

"I'll give you my answer once we get your grades up," the boy said as he turned back to Aika, she blinked up at him in surprise.

"Huh?" Mika, Aika and Kana each replied together, Kashin smirked a bright twinkling in her eyes shown her amusement; the young man smiled gently at the group of girls standing before him.

"I'll help you each train in exchange for some hand-to-hand combat training," the boy clarified "depending on your grades at the end of the year, I'll think about joining you when the time comes."

"Seriously?" Aika asked "you'll really help us?" the boy nodded and Aika squealed as she launched herself onto the boy and gave him a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Aika cried as those around her chuckled and the boy paled drastically. If only they knew that someone was listening in on them in the tree next to them, green eyes narrowed at the group and teeth ground together before the person disappeared from sight. The boy seemed to be the only one who noticed, for he was the only one who watched the figure rush away to the dorms quickly.

"So what's your name?" Kashin asked, already knowing the answer

"My name is Akashi," the answered a little hesitantly as he pried Aika from him "Akashi Haruno, it's a pleasure to meet you all."

"My name is Aika Haruno," Aika hollered as she saluted him with her tong sticking out playfully

"M-Mika Haruno," Mika straightened slightly as she looked shyly up at the taller boy

"I'm Kashin Haruno," Kashin smirked as she pointed over her shoulder at Kana "that thing over there is Kana Haruno."

"Who are you calling _thing_?" Kana roared as she attached Kashin, who ran off into the training grounds to give herself the better advantaged; the group of teens watched as Kana very nearly beat the crap out of Kashin.

"So Kana is best at Taijutsu," Akashi stated with a raised eye brow that no one noticed

"Yup, and Kashin is best at Genjutsu," Aika smiled up at the boy "although if you'd ask her she'd say Taijutsu for sure!"

"What are the rest of your talents?" Akashi asked,

"Mika is pretty good with all kinds of Ninjutsu," Aika said as the blushing girl hid behind her, "as for myself I'm not all that sure… I'm book smart but bad at everything else—"

"Aika!" Kashin cried as she ran hurriedly towards the blond "Kana's being cruel!" as proof Kashin showed Aika her deeply cut arm "can you heal me please?"

"Why you deserved it," Aika said unsympathetically

"I'll give you chocolate," Kashin said immanently

"Nice try—"

"Two weeks' worth—"

"Come here," Kashin smiled like a smug cat as Aika grabbed her arm and started healing the deep gash immanently.

"Aika doesn't like to admit it," Kashin said as she turned to the boy beside her "but she's pretty good at Medic-ninjutsu." At this Aika slapped Kashin's arm harshly, Kashin immanently yelped and pulled her half healed arm to her chest with tears in her eyes. "What was that for?!"

"That was for planning on getting cut you dumb ass!" Aika cried as she through a kunai at Kashin who quickly dodged then started running as Aika glared at her; it wasn't long before Kashin was running for her life and Aika was busy trying hit her with her absurd assortment of weapons.

"And good with weapons right?" Akashi asked, Mika nodded her head as she watched her roommates run around the training field.

"It's best to let Aika vent on Kashin then Kana," Mika said softly, "She won't heal Kana."

"Why's that?"

"Kana can heal herself almost immanently," Mika answered softly "she's one of the rare few in the clan who doesn't need a medic Nin because her chakra is constantly keeping her in good health."

"I see…"

…

"You did that on purpose didn't you?" Yuhi asked as she watched the group from a fare, Ichigo was lying on the roof top, her gray head propped up on the seal of the roof top.

"Of course," Ichigo said with a smug smile "We do need to leave someone behind to take care of this place when we leave next year, someone who will protect this school no matter what."

"And you figured that the person walking past us at that moment was good enough?" Yuri asked "Have you seen that groups grades?"

"I've seen Aika work," Ichigo replied as she rolled over to look at the summer blue sky, "She's like Sakura; she's a natural in Genjutsu and Medic-ninjutsu." Ichigo turned just enough to stare up into the curious green eyes of her elder twin, "She's perfect to lead the school behind and the group she's assembled to help her isn't half bad either; they all show promise."

"We should make sure the teacher's help them then," Yuri said after a moment of silence "you can only get so far on your own; someone with experience for a teacher is always a good idea."

"Got anyone in mind?" Ichigo asked at Yuri sat next to her

"The very people you hate most…" Yuri answered as she bit her thumb as she thought, Ichigo let out a loud, depressed groan.

"The heads are coming over aren't they?"

"If we can convince them…"

"Talk about being a foot deep in debt," Ichigo whined "we'll never be able to pay this off!"

…

Sakura felt a strange sensation warm its way up her back, she knew immanently that someone was within range of her compound—someone she knew. Jumping to her feet and ignoring the several scrolls that fell from her desk as she launched herself towards the closest door. Sakura heard the startled shout of Sasori as she burst from her office in the infirmary and launched herself into a nearby tree from the open hallway.

"Sakura-sensei!" cried out a student in surprise as she flew past them, making the child stumble and fall backwards.

"Sorry!" Sakura called over her shoulder as she continued on.

"Sakura-chan!" Sakura looked over her shoulder at Sasori and Kakuso who were both quickly approaching her, "What's wrong?"

"HE'S HERE!" Sakura cried as jumped into the air so she could run along the closest roof top, "He's here! He's here!"

"Sakura-san," Sakura smiled up at Itachi as he quickly took his place beside her, without much of a hesitation he scooped her up into his arms. "Whose here?" Sakura smiled warmly up at Itachi as he jumped into the air. Her cheeks were lightly dusted in a deep pink, a light danced in her emerald eyes as very nearly started squealing in excitement.

"My betrothed!"

…


End file.
